CVE-2010-5327: Liferay Portal remote code execution via Velocity template

CVE-2010-5327 · Severity: high · CVSS 8.8 · Published 2017-01-13

Liferay Portal, a widely used enterprise content management and web portal platform, is vulnerable to a security flaw that allows authenticated users to execute unauthorized commands on the underlying server. By submitting a specially crafted Velocity template, an attacker can gain full control over the system, potentially leading to data theft, service disruption, or further network intrusion. This issue affects versions up to 6.2.10 and requires immediate patching to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive corporate infrastructure.

Technologies: Liferay Portal. Vendors: Liferay, Maven.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2010-5327 exploited in the wild?
No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2010-5327 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2010-5327?
High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.8, published 13 January 2017.
Which products and versions are affected?
Liferay Portal through 6.2.10; com.liferay.portal:portal-impl (Maven) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=6.2.11; com.liferay.portal:portal-service (Maven) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=6.2.11.
Is there a fix for CVE-2010-5327?
Yes. com.liferay.portal:portal-impl (Maven): upgrade to 6.2.11 or later; com.liferay.portal:portal-service (Maven): upgrade to 6.2.11 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2010-5327 attacked?
It is attacked over the network, in a web application.
Am I affected by CVE-2010-5327?
Check whether you run Liferay Portal, Liferay Portal, com.liferay.portal:portal-impl (Maven) or one of the others listed at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

How to fix

  • com.liferay.portal:portal-impl (Maven): upgrade to 6.2.11 or later
    # set com.liferay.portal:portal-impl to 6.2.11 in your pom.xml or build.gradle
  • com.liferay.portal:portal-service (Maven): upgrade to 6.2.11 or later
    # set com.liferay.portal:portal-service to 6.2.11 in your pom.xml or build.gradle

Technical details

A Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability exists in Liferay Portal through version 6.2.10 due to insufficient sandboxing of the Velocity template engine. The root cause is a failure in permissions and access controls (CWE-264) that allows authenticated users with template-editing privileges to bypass restricted contexts and invoke arbitrary Java classes or shell commands. An attacker with network access and low-level authentication can submit a malicious Velocity template to achieve full system compromise. The vulnerability was addressed in later versions by introducing plugin-specific context execution and improved classloading controls to restrict template access to sensitive packages.

Affected products

  • Liferay Liferay Portal through 6.2.10

Identifiers

  • CVE-2010-5327
  • GHSA-97gm-mcv6-cphm

Timeline

  • 2010-05-12: disclosed: Initial vulnerability identification (approximate based on CVE year)
  • 2012-06-14: patched: Fix committed to Liferay Portal GitHub repository
  • 2017-01-13: advisory: NVD publication date

References

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