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Digital Experience PlatformApplication · Liferay

CVE-2023-33942

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-24
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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 · unedited
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Web Content Display widget's article selector in Liferay Liferay Portal 7.4.3.50, and Liferay DXP 7.4 update 50 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted payload injected into a web content article's `Title` 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 confidence

A stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in Liferay Portal 7.4.3.50 and Liferay DXP 7.4 update 50. The vulnerability is in the Web Content Display widget's article selector, where malicious JavaScript or HTML can be injected into a web content article's Title field. When other users view the affected content through the widget, the injected payload executes in their browsers.

MitigationApply the vendor-provided patch for CVE-2023-33942 to Liferay Portal/DXP 7.4 update 50. Additionally, implement output encoding when rendering the Title field in the Web Content Display widget to prevent XSS execution.

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
Digital Experience PlatformApplication
Affected:= 7.4
Liferay PortalApplication
Affected:= 7.4.3.50

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Liferer Portal/DXP version
    Log into the Liferer Control Panel, go to Configuration > Server Administration > Product Information, or inspect the portal-ext.properties file for the version property
    Affected if The version is 7.4.3.50 or is a DXP 7.4 version at update 50 or earlier
  2. Confirm Web Content Display widget is in use
    Navigate to Site Administration > Pages, inspect each page, or query the layouttable for portlet plid values corresponding to the Web Content Display portlet (com_liferay_journal_content_web_portlet_JournalContentPortlet)
    Affected if The Web Content Display widget is deployed and visible on any live page
  3. Inspect web content articles for injected titles
    Access the Web Content section in Site Administration, review all articles, or query the journalarticle table for Title field values containing HTML tags like <script>, <img onerror>, javascript:, or other XSS patterns
    Affected if Any web content article Title field contains unsanitized HTML or JavaScript code that could execute in a browser

You are affected if you run Liferer Portal 7.4.3.50 or DXP 7.4 update 50 or earlier AND have the Web Content Display widget displaying articles with titles containing malicious script injection.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor-provided patch for CVE-2023-33942 to Liferay Portal/DXP 7.4 update 50. Additionally, implement output encoding when rendering the Title field in the Web Content Display widget to prevent XSS execution.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

LPortal 7.4.3.51+ or DXP 7.4 Update 51+

  1. 1. Backup your current LPortal/DXP database and deployment
  2. 2. Download LPortal 7.4.3.51 or later, or DXP 7.4 Update 51 or later from the Liferay Help Center or customer portal
  3. 3. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first
  4. 4. Deploy the fixed version to production
Caveat Review Liferay's release notes for between your current version and the target version for any compatibility or configuration changes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Digital Experience Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-33942 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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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