CVE-2021-33335 — release.portal.bom
HIGHCVE-2021-33335 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.2) CWE-863 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 Has Company Administrator Accounts Vulnerable to Takeovers
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-2021-33335 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 379,145 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.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
Privilege escalation vulnerability in Liferay Portal 7.0.3 through 7.3.4, and Liferay DXP 7.1 before fix pack 20, and 7.2 before fix pack 9 allows remote authenticated users with permission to update/edit users to take over a company administrator user account by editing the company administrator user.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom | ≥ 7.0.3&&< 7.3.5 | 7.3.5com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom:7.3.5 |
| ☕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.fp9 | 7.2.10.fp9com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom:7.2.10.fp9 |
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-2021-33335 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-33335 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-33335. 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-2021-33335 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-33335 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.