CVE-2021-33321
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedInsecure default configuration in Liferay Portal 6.2.3 through 7.3.2, and Liferay DXP before 7.3, allows remote attackers to enumerate user email address via the forgot password functionality. The portal.property login.secure.forgot.password should be defaulted to true.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceLferrer Portal and DXP have an insecure default configuration in the forgot password functionality where the portal.property login.secure.forgot.password defaults to false. This allows remote attackers to determine valid email addresses by observing different responses (e.g., 'email not found' vs 'reset link sent') when submitting password reset requests.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data< 7.3>= 6.2.3, < 7.3.3CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Liferary versionCheck the Liferay portal or DXP version through the UI (Control Panel > Configuration > Server Information) or by inspecting the portal-impl.jar manifest file in the application server.Affected if Version is Liferay Portal >= 6.2.3 and < 7.3.3, or Liferay DXP < 7.3 (this makes the instance potentially affected)
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Locate the portal.properties fileFind the portal.properties file in the Liferay installation directory, typically under [Liferay_Home]/portal.properties or within the web application WEB-INF/classes folder.Affected if The file exists and contains the login.secure.forgot.password setting
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Verify the login.secure.forgot.password settingSearch the portal.properties file (and any portal-ext.properties override file) for the line 'login.secure.forgot.password' and note its value.Affected if The property is set to 'false' or is not present (defaults to false), indicating the vulnerable configuration is active
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Check for OSGi configuration overrideInspect any OSGi configuration files in the [Liferay_Home]/osgi/configs directory or LKinsey configuration for 'login.secure.forgot.password' setting.Affected if An override file exists and sets login.secure.forgot.password to false, or no override exists and the default is in effect
The environment is affected if running a vulnerable Liferay version AND the login.secure.forgot.password property is set to false (or not explicitly set to true), allowing user enumeration via the forgot password function.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data7.37.3.3
Set login.secure.forgot.password=true in portal.properties (or LKinsey configuration) to prevent user enumeration in the forgot password workflow.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-33321 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-33321 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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