CVE-2025-62257: 
Java vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-62257 is a password enumeration vulnerability in Liferay Portal and Liferay DXP that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to determine a user's password via brute force attack, even when account lockout is enabled. It affects Liferay Portal versions 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.119 (and older unsupported versions), and Liferay DXP 2024.Q1.1 through 2024.Q1.5, 2023.Q4.0 through 2023.Q4.10, 2023.Q3.1 through 2023.Q3.10, and 7.4 GA through update 92. The vulnerability was published on October 29, 2025, and received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (Medium) and a CVSS v4.0 base score of 6.3 (Medium) (GitHub Advisory, Liferay Advisory).

The vulnerability is classified as CWE-307 (Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts), meaning the application fails to adequately enforce account lockout or rate-limiting controls during authentication (GitHub Advisory). An attacker can exploit this flaw by submitting repeated login attempts against the Liferay authentication endpoint without being blocked, effectively bypassing the account lockout mechanism. This allows systematic enumeration of valid credentials through brute force or dictionary attacks over the network, requiring no prior authentication or user interaction. Three commits in the liferay-portal repository (45cffd5, 924a0a4, d21627a) address this issue (GitHub Advisory).

Successful exploitation allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to enumerate valid user accounts and ultimately determine user passwords through brute force, bypassing the account lockout security control. The primary impact is a low-level confidentiality breach — credential exposure — which could enable unauthorized access to user accounts within the Liferay Portal or DXP environment. There is no direct integrity or availability impact, but compromised accounts could serve as a foothold for further lateral movement within the organization's digital experience platform (Liferay Advisory, GitHub Advisory).

No public proof-of-concept exploit code has been identified, and there is no evidence of active in-the-wild exploitation at this time (GitHub Advisory). The EPSS score is approximately 0.016% (4th percentile), indicating a low near-term probability of exploitation. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. No threat actor attribution has been reported. The attack requires no privileges or user interaction and is remotely exploitable over the network, though the CVSS v4.0 metric notes that attack requirements are "Present," suggesting some preconditions exist in the deployment environment.

1. Reconnaissance: Identify internet-facing Liferay Portal or DXP instances using tools like Shodan or Censys, targeting versions 7.4.0–7.4.3.119 or the affected DXP quarterly releases.
2. Username enumeration: Submit login requests with known or guessed usernames to the Liferay authentication endpoint (e.g., /c/portal/login) and observe response differences (timing, error messages) to confirm valid accounts.
3. Brute force attack: Using a tool such as Hydra, Burp Suite Intruder, or a custom script, submit repeated authentication attempts against confirmed valid usernames with a password wordlist, exploiting the failure to enforce account lockout.
4. Bypass lockout: Continue submitting credentials beyond the configured lockout threshold, as the vulnerability allows the lockout mechanism to be circumvented, enabling sustained brute force without account suspension.
5. Credential access: Upon a successful authentication response, use the discovered credentials to log in to the Liferay portal and access user data, administrative functions, or connected systems (GitHub Advisory, Liferay Advisory).

• Network: High volume of HTTP POST requests to Liferay login endpoints (e.g., /c/portal/login) from a single or rotating set of IP addresses; repeated authentication attempts with varying passwords for the same username.
• Logs: Liferay access logs showing a large number of failed login attempts for specific user accounts without corresponding account lockout events; absence of lockout log entries despite repeated failures exceeding the configured threshold.
• Application: Authentication audit logs showing sequential or dictionary-pattern password attempts against one or more user accounts; login attempts originating from unusual geographic locations or automated user-agent strings.

Liferay has released patches addressing this vulnerability. Users should upgrade Liferay Portal to version 7.4.3.120 or later, and Liferay DXP to a fixed quarterly release beyond 2024.Q1.5, 2023.Q4.10, or 2023.Q3.10 (GitHub Advisory, Liferay Advisory). As interim mitigations, administrators should implement multi-factor authentication (MFA), enforce IP-based rate limiting or a web application firewall (WAF) rule on authentication endpoints, monitor and alert on excessive failed login attempts, and require strong, unique passwords for all accounts. Restricting network access to the Liferay authentication endpoint to trusted IP ranges can further reduce exposure.