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Digital Experience PlatformApplication · Liferay

CVE-2023-33949

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 7.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
In Liferay Portal 7.3.0 and earlier, and Liferay DXP 7.2 and earlier the default configuration does not require users to verify their email address, which allows remote attackers to create accounts using fake email addresses or email addresses which they don't control. The portal property `company.security.strangers.verify` should be set 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 confidence

Lifter Portal and DXP have a default configuration flaw where the `company.security.strangers.verify` property is not enabled, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to register accounts with arbitrary email addresses they don't control. This enables account takeover, spam, or phishing attacks.

MitigationSet the portal property `company.security.strangers.verify` to `true` in the portal-ext.properties or related configuration file to enforce email verification before account activation.

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:>= 7.0, <= 7.2
Liferay PortalApplication
Affected:>= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.6>= 7.1.0, <= 7.1.3>= 7.2.0, <= 7.2.1= 7.3.0

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 Liferay product and version
    Access the Liferay server admin panel or check the portal-impl.properties file for the version information. Compare the installed version against the affected ranges: DXP 7.0-7.2, Portal 7.0.0-7.0.6, 7.1.0-7.1.3, 7.2.0-7.2.1, or 7.3.0.
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of the affected version ranges listed.
  2. Locate portal configuration file
    Find the portal-ext.properties, portal-ext.rb, or related configuration file in the Liferay installation directory where custom properties are stored.
    Affected if The configuration file exists on the system.
  3. Check company.security.strangers.verify setting
    Open the portal configuration file and search for the property key 'company.security.strangers.verify'. Note whether it is present and what value is assigned (true/false).
    Affected if The property is either absent from the configuration or is explicitly set to false.
  4. Verify default behavior if property is absent
    If the property is not found in portal-ext.properties, consult the default portal.properties in the portal-impl.jar to confirm the default value for company.security.strangers.verify.
    Affected if The default value is false or verification is not enforced.

You are affected if you are running an affected Liferay version AND the company.security.strangers.verify property is either absent from your configuration or set to false, allowing unrestricted account registration with unverified email addresses.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 7.2.1
Interim mitigation

Set the portal property `company.security.strangers.verify` to `true` in the portal-ext.properties or related configuration file to enforce email verification before account activation.

Recommended fix High confidence
  1. Locate the portal-ext.properties or portal-setup-wizard.properties file in your Liferay installation
  2. Add or modify the property `company.security.strangers.verify=true` in the properties file
  3. Restart the Lifter server for the configuration change to take effect
  4. Verify that newly created accounts now require email address verification before becoming active

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

Fix this in Digital Experience Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
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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-2023-33949 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data