CVE-2025-46863
📋 TL;DR
A 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. This affects AEM versions 6.5.22 and earlier.
💻 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 victim's browser.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement of AEM content pages through injected scripts.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation and output encoding controls, though stored XSS remains a persistent threat until patched.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated low-privileged access; stored XSS attacks are well-understood and commonly weaponized.
🛠️ 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 patch is applied correctly.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement custom servlet filters to sanitize user input in form fields before processing.
Implement Java servlet filter with OWASP Java Encoder library for input sanitization
Content Security Policy
allDeploy strict CSP headers to mitigate script execution from untrusted sources.
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header with script-src directives limiting JavaScript sources
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content authoring and form submission capabilities.
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block XSS payloads in form submissions.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via OSGi console (http://[host]:[port]/system/console/bundles) or CRX Package Manager for version 6.5.22 or earlier.Check Version:
curl -s http://localhost:4502/system/console/bundles | grep 'Adobe Experience Manager'Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm AEM version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields with XSS payloads to ensure they are properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to form submission endpoints with script tags or JavaScript payloads in parameters
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by form submissions
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing <script> tags or JavaScript in form field parameters
- Outbound connections to suspicious domains from AEM server
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")