CVE-2024-49523
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability where attackers can inject malicious scripts into form fields. When users visit pages containing these compromised fields, their browsers execute the attacker's JavaScript. This affects organizations using vulnerable Adobe Experience Manager instances for content management.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe Experience Manager
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could steal session cookies, perform actions as authenticated users, redirect to malicious sites, or deploy additional malware payloads through the compromised browser sessions.
Likely Case
Attackers inject malicious scripts to steal user credentials, session tokens, or perform limited actions within the application context of affected users.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding controls, the vulnerability would be prevented from executing malicious scripts, though the injection might still occur.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires the attacker to have access to inject content into vulnerable form fields, which typically requires some level of application access or content creation privileges.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.21 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/experience-manager/apsb24-28.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download Adobe Experience Manager 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 by checking the version in the AEM welcome screen.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation and Output Encoding
allImplement strict input validation on all form fields and ensure proper output encoding when displaying user-supplied content.
Content Security Policy (CSP)
allImplement a strict Content Security Policy header to restrict script execution sources and prevent inline script execution.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block XSS payloads in form submissions
- Restrict user permissions to minimize who can create or edit content with form fields
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check the AEM version by logging into the instance and viewing the welcome screen or checking the /system/console/status-productinfo endpoint. If version is 6.5.20 or earlier, the system is vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -u admin:password http://localhost:4502/system/console/status-productinfo.json | grep "Adobe Experience Manager"Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify the version shows 6.5.21 or later in the AEM welcome screen or product info console.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content creation/modification patterns in form fields
- Requests containing suspicious script patterns in form submissions
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script tags or JavaScript in form field parameters
- Unusual outbound connections from AEM servers following form submissions
SIEM Query:
source="aem_logs" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onload=" OR "onerror=") AND ("POST" OR "PUT") AND path="*/form/*"