CVE-2025-46872
📋 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 users visit 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 compromised AEM instance.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, defacement of AEM pages, or data exfiltration from user browsers accessing the vulnerable pages.
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. Stored XSS typically has reliable exploitation once vulnerable fields are identified.
🛠️ 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 sources and prevent inline script execution.
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header with appropriate directives to web server configuration
Input Validation Filter
allDeploy servlet filter to sanitize user input in form submissions.
Implement and configure input validation filter in AEM's Sling framework
🧯 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. Verify version is 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. Test form fields with safe XSS payloads to ensure proper sanitization.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual form submissions with script tags or JavaScript payloads in request parameters
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by form submissions
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script tags or JavaScript in POST parameters to AEM form endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onload=" OR "onerror=")