Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This issue lets an attacker craft a Liferay Notifications link that sends a user to an arbitrary external site. The main business risk is abuse of trusted Liferay URLs for phishing or user deception. The source bundle does not provide a CVSS score or evidence of active exploitation.
Executive priority
Address this on a normal vulnerability-management timeline, faster for public-facing portals. It is not listed in KEV and severity data is incomplete, but trusted-domain phishing risk can still affect users and brand trust.
Technical view
CVE-2021-33331 is an open redirect in the Liferay Notifications module. A remote attacker can control the redirect destination through the redirect parameter. Affected versions are Liferay Portal 7.0.0 through 7.3.1 and specified Liferay DXP releases before listed fix packs.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where affected Liferay Portal or DXP instances are reachable by users, especially public or partner-facing portals using the Notifications module.
Exploitation context
The CVE record describes remote redirect abuse, but the bundle marks KEV as false and provides no cited evidence of active exploitation. Treat it as a phishing-enablement weakness, not confirmed compromise evidence.
Researcher notes
The public bundle lacks CVSS, CWE, detailed exploit conditions, and workaround detail. Analysis should stay constrained to the documented redirect parameter behavior and affected Liferay version ranges.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade Liferay Portal deployments beyond the affected 7.0.0 through 7.3.1 range.
- Install DXP 7.0 fix pack 94, 7.1 fix pack 19, or 7.2 fix pack 8 or later.
- Review Liferay advisory LPE-17022 for exact fixed builds and deployment guidance.
- Prioritize internet-facing portals and environments serving customers, partners, or employees.
Validation and detection
- Inventory all Liferay Portal and DXP instances and record exact versions and fix pack levels.
- Confirm whether the Notifications module is present or used in exposed deployments.
- Verify affected systems have been upgraded to a fixed version or listed fix pack level.
- Review logs for unusual external redirect destinations in Notifications-related requests.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
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
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2021-33331 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
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.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities/-/asset_publisher/HbL5mxmVrnXW/content/id/120747627CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://issues.liferay.com/browse/LPE-17022CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.