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CVE Record

CVE-2021-33321: Insecure default configuration in Liferay Portal 6.2.3 through 7.3.2, and Liferay DXP before 7.3, allows re...

Insecure 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.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This issue lets outsiders use Liferay's forgot-password flow to learn whether an email address belongs to a portal user. It is not described as full account takeover, but it can expose user lists and support phishing, credential stuffing, and privacy concerns for customer or employee portals.

Executive priority

Treat this as a privacy and phishing-enablement issue, not a confirmed breach indicator. Prioritize public portals and customer or employee identity stores, especially where exposed email addresses could aid targeted fraud or credential attacks.

Technical view

CVE-2021-33321 is an insecure default configuration in Liferay Portal 6.2.3 through 7.3.2 and Liferay DXP before 7.3. The source states login.secure.forgot.password should default to true, implying affected deployments may reveal account existence through password reset behavior.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most relevant for internet-facing or partner-facing Liferay portals where forgot-password functionality is enabled and user email addresses are sensitive. Internal-only portals still matter if employee identity exposure increases phishing or social-engineering risk.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not state active exploitation, public exploit tooling, or CISA KEV listing. The weakness is remotely reachable through normal account-recovery functionality, so opportunistic enumeration is plausible where affected defaults remain in place.

Researcher notes

The bundle lacks CVSS, CWE, and detailed vendor remediation text beyond the configuration statement. Avoid overstating impact: the documented behavior is email address enumeration via forgot-password, not authentication bypass or direct account compromise.

Mitigation direction

  • Check Liferay guidance for the affected release line.
  • Set login.secure.forgot.password to true where applicable.
  • Upgrade away from affected Liferay Portal and DXP versions when vendor guidance recommends it.
  • Review password-reset messaging for account-enumeration leakage.
  • Monitor forgot-password activity for unusual volume or targeting.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory all Liferay Portal and DXP deployments and versions.
  • Confirm whether forgot-password functionality is enabled on each portal.
  • Verify the login.secure.forgot.password setting on affected systems.
  • Confirm reset responses do not disclose whether an email exists.
  • Review logs for repeated password-reset requests across many emails.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
4

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

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description · low confidence lookup

Credential and access behavior lookup

The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

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cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2021-33321 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
3Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.