CVE-2023-33937
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 · uneditedStored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Form widget configuration in Liferay Portal 7.1.0 through 7.3.0, and Liferay DXP 7.1 before fix pack 18, and 7.2 before fix pack 5 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted payload injected into a form's `name` field.
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 confidenceStored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Liferay Portal and DXP's Form widget allows attackers to inject malicious JavaScript/HTML into a form's name field. The payload is stored and executed when other users view or interact with the affected form configuration.
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= 7.1= 7.2>= 7.1.0, <= 7.3.0CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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 the installed Lifer Portal or DXP versionAccess the Lifer Control Panel > Configuration > Server Administration > Index, or check the portal-ext.properties file for the version property, or use the Lifer Diagnostic Tool (LDF) to retrieve the exact version numberAffected if The installed version is 7.1.0 through 7.3.0 for Lifer Portal, or 7.1.x or 7.2.x for Lifer DXP
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Determine if the Forms widget is in useReview the page layouts and widget instances on your Lifer sites through the Site Administration > Pages section, looking for instances of the Forms portlet/widgetAffected if The Forms widget is deployed and used on any page in the environment
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Inspect stored form names for XSS payloadsQuery the Lifer database (typically the FormEntry or DDMStructure tables depending on version) for forms where the name field contains HTML script tags, iframe tags, or javascript: protocol handlers, or export form configurations via the JSON API and inspect the name fieldsAffected if Any form record contains a name field with encoded or raw script tags, event handlers (onload, onerror, etc.), or other XSS vectors
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Review recent form creation and modification logsCheck the Lifer audit records or workflow logs for recent form name changes, looking for unusual character sequences or patterns typical of XSS attemptsAffected if Form name fields have been recently modified with suspicious character patterns
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Test form name field output with a harmless markerCreate a test form with a benign marker string (e.g., TEST-MARKER-123) in the name field, then view the form configuration page as a different user to see if the marker renders as plain text or gets interpretedAffected if The test marker renders with HTML encoding applied (safe) versus raw (vulnerable)
The environment is affected if running Lifer Portal 7.1.0-7.3.0 or DXP 7.1/7.2 AND the Forms widget is actively used, with any stored form containing a malicious payload in its name field.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply the relevant Lifer fix packs (FP18 for DXP 7.1, FP5 for DXP 7.1) or upgrade to a patched version. Implement server-side input validation and output encoding on the form name field to prevent XSS.
Liferay DXP 7.1 Fix Pack 18+ or DXP 7.2 Fix Pack 5+; Liferay Portal 7.4+ (for Portal editions)
- 1. Identify the exact Liferay product and version running (Portal or DXP, and specific version number).
- 2. For Liferay DXP 7.1: Apply Fix Pack 18 or later to address the vulnerability.
- 3. For Liferay DXP 7.2: Apply Fix Pack 5 or later to address the vulnerability.
- 4. For Liferay Portal 7.1.0 through 7.3.0: Upgrade to Liferay Portal 7.4 or later, as fix packs are not available for the Portal edition.
- 5. After applying the fix pack or upgrade, verify the Form widget configuration no longer allows script injection in the name field.
- 6. Test that legitimate form name configurations work correctly after the patch.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-33937 — 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-2023-33937 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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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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