CVE-2025-46854
📋 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 the compromised 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, potentially leading to complete system compromise.
Likely Case
Attackers with low privileges steal session cookies or credentials from users who view compromised pages, enabling privilege escalation or data theft.
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 access with form submission privileges. The vulnerability is in stored XSS, meaning malicious payloads persist until cleaned.
🛠️ 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 completed successfully.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement server-side input validation to sanitize form field submissions before storage.
Configure AEM's XSS API filters to sanitize user inputs in vulnerable components
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict Content Security Policy headers to restrict script execution.
Add 'Content-Security-Policy: script-src 'self'' to HTTP responses
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to form submission capabilities
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payload patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via OSGi console or CRXDE. Test form fields for XSS by submitting script payloads and checking if they execute when viewing the page.Check Version:
Navigate to /system/console/bundles in AEM and check version, or use 'aem --version' command line if available.Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, attempt to submit XSS payloads to previously vulnerable form fields and verify they are properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual form submissions containing script tags or JavaScript code in request parameters
- Multiple failed XSS attempts from same IP
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests with script payloads in POST parameters to form endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")