CVE-2024-41844
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 and earlier contain a stored XSS vulnerability where attackers can inject malicious JavaScript into form fields. When users visit pages with these compromised fields, their browsers execute the attacker's code. This affects all organizations running vulnerable AEM instances.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe Experience Manager
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could steal administrator session cookies, perform actions as authenticated users, deface websites, or redirect users to malicious sites.
Likely Case
Attackers with content authoring access inject malicious scripts that execute when other users view affected pages, potentially stealing session data or performing limited unauthorized actions.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the impact is limited to unsuccessful injection attempts that get sanitized before execution.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access to vulnerable form fields. The vulnerability is in the content authoring interface.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 6.5.21 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/experience-manager/apsb24-28.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download AEM 6.5.21 or later from Adobe's distribution portal. 2. Apply the service pack following Adobe's upgrade documentation. 3. Restart the AEM instance. 4. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement custom servlet filters to sanitize input in vulnerable form fields
Implement custom Java servlet filter with input sanitization logic
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict CSP headers to limit script execution
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header with script-src directives
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict content authoring permissions to trusted users only
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via CRXDE Lite or system console. If version is 6.5.20 or earlier, the system is vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -u admin:password http://localhost:4502/system/console/status-productinfoVerify Fix Applied:
Verify AEM version is 6.5.21 or later. Test form fields with XSS payloads to ensure they are properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content modifications in form fields
- JavaScript payloads in request logs
- Multiple failed XSS attempts
Network Indicators:
- Suspicious script tags in HTTP POST requests to form endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="aem-access.log" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")