CVE-2021-38267 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) 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 vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) in edit blog entry page
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-2021-38267 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 378,567 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:com.liferay.frontend.js.webReal-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
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Blogs module's edit blog entry page in Liferay Portal 7.3.2 through 7.3.6, and Liferay DXP 7.3 before fix pack 2 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the _com_liferay_blogs_web_portlet_BlogsAdminPortlet_title and _com_liferay_blogs_web_portlet_BlogsAdminPortlet_subtitle parameter.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom | ≥ 7.3.2&&< 7.3.7-ga8 | 7.3.7-ga8com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom:7.3.7-ga8 |
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom | ≥ 7.3.0&&< 7.3.10.fp2 | 7.3.10.fp2com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom:7.3.10.fp2 |
| ☕Maven | com.liferay:com.liferay.frontend.js.web | all versions | 5.0.0com.liferay:com.liferay.frontend.js.web:5.0.0 |
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 7.3.7-ga8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-38267 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-2021-38267 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-38267. 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-2021-38267 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-38267 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.