Liferay Security Best Practices: Securing Your Portal Environment

Check out our in-depth guide to Liferay Security Best Practices to learn how to protect your portal environment using sensible tactics and procedures.

4 min read

Authentication and Authorization

To have strong user authentication methodologies, such as OpenID Connect, SAML, OAuth, or integration with an LDAP server, following the principles of Role-Based Access Control and allowing users to use their assigned roles and permissions according to their tasks and responsibilities in order to ensure proper authorization.

Secure Communication

In an effort to protect the data from being intercepted and avoid man-in-the-middle attacks, one of the security measures Liferay uses is making HTTPS mandatory for all connections between the client and server. This ensures that any information exchanged between the two points is encrypted. Moreover, it involves SSL/TLS certificates that should be carefully maintained and correctly set up.

Protecting Against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Sanitization and output encoding are effective measures to prevent XSS attacks. Another prevention method is providing secure coding guidelines, as well as awareness training for developers about XSS threats.

Preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

One way of stopping Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is by using CSRF tokens in forms and AJAX queries; this measure helps prevent unnecessary actions originating from sites with malicious intent.

Session Management

To prevent attackers from hijacking sessions, it is necessary to use session timeouts, encrypt session cookies, and session fixation protection.

Security headers

Next, you can turn on a bit of protection against the never-ending stream of vulnerabilities found in web applications. Pick up from where past CIA leaders left off. Set security headers such as X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, and Content Security Policy (CSP).

Secure Development Practices

Use of parameterized queries, output encoding, input validation, and secure coding to prevent injection types like LDAP and SQL injection.

File Upload Security

To avoid file upload vulnerabilities: only accept file in certain formats, scan uploaded files for malware, and store uploaded data in safe locations.

Monitoring and decision-making

Quickly improve monitoring and decision-making and resolve security issues. Monitors user activity, failed login attempts, and suspicious behavior.

Security Audits and Updates

Identify vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities in your Liferay environment through routine security audits. Apply security updates and updates to Liferay and its dependencies.