CVE-2021-29040 — release.portal.bom
MEDIUMCVE-2021-29040 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-209 vulnerability in com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom. A fix is available for com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Liferay Portal and Liferay DXP Reveals Data via Overly Verbose Error Messages
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-29040 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom☕com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom☕com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom☕com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bomReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The JSON web services in Liferay Portal 7.3.4 and earlier, and Liferay DXP 7.0 before fix pack 97, 7.1 before fix pack 20 and 7.2 before fix pack 10 may provide overly verbose error messages, which allows remote attackers to use the contents of error messages to help launch another, more focused attacks via crafted inputs.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom | all versions | 7.3.5com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom:7.3.5 |
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom | all versions | 7.0.10.fp97com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom:7.0.10.fp97 |
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom | ≥ 7.1.0&&< 7.1.10.fp20 | 7.1.10.fp20com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom:7.1.10.fp20 |
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom | ≥ 7.2.0&&< 7.2.10.fp10 | 7.2.10.fp10com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom:7.2.10.fp10 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom to 7.3.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-29040 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-29040 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-29040. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-29040 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-29040 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.