Liferay Portal and Liferay DXP have Insecure Deserialization Vulnerability

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.1 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2020-15842: 1.79% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 78.44 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Liferay Portal before 7.3.0, and Liferay DXP 7.0 before fix pack 90, 7.1 before fix pack 17, and 7.2 before fix pack 5, allows man-in-the-middle attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted serialized payloads, because of insecure deserialization.

Published by the source

24 May 2022, 17:23 UTC

Last modified by the source

28 May 2025, 20:01 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 16:36 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-mg3r-9jh8-33r9

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2020-15842

Advisory: Liferay Portal and Liferay DXP have Insecure Deserialization Vulnerability
IDs: CVE-2020-15842, GHSA-mg3r-9jh8-33r9
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2020-15842 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:36 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.1)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom 7.3.0; com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom 7.2.10.fp5, 7.1.10.fp17, 7.0.10.fp90. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom: affected < 7.3.0; fixed in 7.3.0
- Maven com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom: affected >= 7.0.0, < 7.0.10.fp90; >= 7.1.0, < 7.1.10.fp17; >= 7.2.0, < 7.2.10.fp5; fixed in 7.0.10.fp90, 7.2.10.fp5, 7.1.10.fp17

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom: check the installed version with your package manager.
- Maven com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom, com.liferay.portal:release.dxp.bom.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-mg3r-9jh8-33r9 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-mg3r-9jh8-33r9 lists affected ranges: Maven com.liferay.portal:release.portal.bom >=0 =7.0.0 =7.1.0 =7.2.0 <7.2.10.fp5)

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