CVE-2025-46851
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored XSS vulnerability where low-privileged attackers can inject malicious scripts into form fields. When victims browse pages containing these compromised fields, their browsers execute the attacker's JavaScript. This affects organizations using vulnerable AEM 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 through the compromised browser.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement of web content through injected scripts.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation, output encoding, and Content Security Policy (CSP) headers in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated low-privileged access to inject scripts into vulnerable 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 AEM 6.5.23 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 completed successfully.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Content Security Policy
allAdd CSP headers to restrict script execution from untrusted sources.
Add 'Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'' to web server configuration
Input Validation and Output Encoding
allImplement server-side validation and proper output encoding for all user inputs.
Configure AEM's XSS protection filters and validate all form field inputs
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to vulnerable form fields and components.
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block XSS payloads.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via the welcome screen or OSGi console. Versions 6.5.22 and earlier are vulnerable.Check Version:
Navigate to /system/console/status-productinfo in AEM or check CRX Package Manager for installed service packs.Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm AEM version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields for XSS payload acceptance.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual script tags or JavaScript in form submissions
- Multiple failed XSS attempts in access logs
Network Indicators:
- Suspicious script payloads in HTTP POST requests to AEM forms
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")