CVE-2025-46878
📋 TL;DR
This stored 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, potentially leading to complete system compromise.
Likely Case
Attackers with low privileges will typically steal session cookies or user data from other users who view the compromised pages, enabling privilege escalation or data theft.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the impact is limited to unsuccessful injection attempts that get sanitized before execution.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires low-privileged authenticated access to inject scripts into 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 official distribution channels. 2. Follow Adobe's upgrade documentation for your specific deployment type. 3. Apply the update to all affected instances. 4. Restart the AEM service. 5. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation and Sanitization
allImplement strict input validation and output encoding for all form fields to prevent script injection.
Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers
Use OWASP Java Encoder library for output encoding
Restrict Form Field Permissions
allLimit which user roles can edit form fields that accept user input.
Modify AEM permissions to restrict form field editing to trusted users only
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block XSS payloads
- Disable or restrict access to vulnerable form fields until patching is possible
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via AEM Web Console (/system/console) or by examining the AEM installation directory for version files.Check Version:
Check /system/console/bundles for org.apache.sling.installer.core bundle version or examine crx-quickstart/VERSION fileVerify Fix Applied:
After updating to 6.5.23+, verify the version in AEM Web Console and test form fields for XSS vulnerabilities using safe test payloads.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual form submissions with script tags or JavaScript code
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by form edits
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script injection patterns to form endpoints
- Unexpected outbound connections from AEM servers
SIEM Query:
source="aem_logs" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")