CVE-2025-46838
📋 TL;DR
This stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager allows low-privileged attackers to inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. When victims browse pages containing these fields, their browsers execute the attacker's scripts. Organizations using Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier are affected.
💻 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 low privileges could steal session tokens from other users, perform limited actions within their permission scope, or deploy basic phishing attacks.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the vulnerability would be prevented, though the underlying code flaw remains.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated low-privileged access and knowledge of vulnerable form fields.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 6.5.23 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/experience-manager/apsb25-48.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.23 or later from Adobe's distribution portal. 2. Apply the service pack following Adobe's installation guide. 3. Restart the AEM instance. 4. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement server-side input validation to sanitize form field inputs before processing.
Configure AEM's XSS protection filter to validate vulnerable form fields
Content Security Policy
allImplement Content Security Policy headers to restrict script execution.
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header with script-src directives
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to vulnerable form fields and components
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payload patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via the Welcome screen or OSGi console. If version is 6.5.22 or earlier, the system is vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -k https://<aem-host>:<port>/system/console/version or check AEM Welcome pageVerify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify the version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields with XSS payloads to ensure they're properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to form submission endpoints with script tags
- Requests containing common XSS payload patterns like <script>alert()</script>
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests with JavaScript payloads in form parameters
- Unusual outbound connections following form submissions
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")