Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-33320

Medium

Published: 03 August 2021

Published
03 August 2021
Modified
13 May 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 4.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0039 60.6th percentile
Risk Priority 9 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2021-33320 is a medium-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Liferay Digital Experience Platform. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 39.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

The Flags module in Liferay Portal 7.3.1 and earlier, and Liferay DXP 7.0 before fix pack 96, 7.1 before fix pack 20, and 7.2 before fix pack 5, does not limit the rate at which content can be flagged as…

more

inappropriate, which allows remote authenticated users to spam the site administrator with emails

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

liferay
digital experience platform
7.0, 7.1, 7.2
liferay
liferay portal
≤ 7.3.1

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-770

This control implements explicit throttling on session allocation, addressing the weakness of allocating resources without limits.

addresses: CWE-770

Plan testing exercises resource allocation limits and throttling during simulated failures, directly addressing weaknesses that allow unbounded resource use.

addresses: CWE-770

Contingency plan updates ensure recovery strategies address unbounded resource allocation, making it harder for attackers to exploit lack of throttling to cause prolonged outages.

addresses: CWE-770

Provides continuity when unbounded resource allocation at the primary site leads to exhaustion and downtime.

addresses: CWE-770

Alternate services allow operations to continue when primary allocation of resources lacks limits or throttling.

addresses: CWE-770

Explicit planning of security-related actions requires defining limits, windows, and resource allocations, making allocation without throttling far less likely.

addresses: CWE-770

Measures of performance include tracking allocation behavior and throttling effectiveness, reducing the window for resource exhaustion attacks.

addresses: CWE-770

Imposes an inactivity-based limit on network resource allocation, throttling the number of concurrently held connections.

References