CVE-2019-16147 in Liferay Portal
Summary
by MITRE
Liferay Portal through 7.2.0 GA1 allows XSS via a journal article title to journal_article/page.jsp in journal/journal-taglib.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/18/2023
The vulnerability CVE-2019-16147 represents a cross-site scripting flaw discovered in Liferay Portal versions up to 7.2.0 GA1, specifically affecting the journal article title handling within the journal_article/page.jsp component of the journal/journal-taglib module. This vulnerability enables malicious actors to inject malicious scripts into journal article titles that are subsequently rendered on web pages, creating a persistent XSS attack vector. The issue stems from inadequate input sanitization and output encoding mechanisms within the portal's content management system, particularly in how it processes and displays journal article metadata.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when an attacker crafts a malicious payload within a journal article title field, which then gets processed through the journal_article/page.jsp script. This script fails to properly escape or encode special characters in the article title before rendering it in the web page context, allowing attackers to inject JavaScript code that executes in the victim's browser. The vulnerability specifically impacts the rendering pipeline of journal articles, where user-supplied content flows through the application without adequate security controls to prevent script injection.
This vulnerability has significant operational impact on organizations using Liferay Portal, as it can lead to unauthorized access to user sessions, data theft, and potential system compromise. Attackers can leverage this flaw to steal cookies, hijack user sessions, redirect victims to malicious sites, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. The persistent nature of the vulnerability means that once an attacker successfully injects malicious content, the script will execute every time the affected page is loaded, potentially affecting numerous users who view the compromised journal articles. The vulnerability also violates fundamental web security principles and can result in compliance violations for organizations subject to data protection regulations.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the latest security patches from Liferay, implementing input validation and output encoding controls, and configuring proper content security policies. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which describes cross-site scripting flaws, and corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and scripting interpreter. Additional defensive measures include implementing web application firewalls, conducting regular security assessments, and establishing secure coding practices for input validation. Organizations should also consider implementing proper access controls and monitoring for suspicious content submissions to detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper sanitization of user inputs in web applications and the potential for widespread impact when such controls are insufficient.