CVE-2025-46916
📋 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 users visit 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 payloads through persistent script execution.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, defacement of web content, or limited data exfiltration from user browsers.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the vulnerability would be prevented despite the underlying code flaw.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but minimal technical skill once access is obtained.
🛠️ 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. Backup AEM instance and content. 2. Download and apply AEM 6.5.23 or later from Adobe distribution. 3. Follow Adobe's upgrade documentation. 4. Restart AEM services. 5. Verify successful upgrade.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement server-side input validation to sanitize form field submissions
Configure AEM's XSS protection filters via OSGi console
Content Security Policy
allImplement CSP headers to restrict script execution
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header via dispatcher or web server configuration
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content creation/editing capabilities
- Implement web application firewall rules to detect and block XSS payloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via CRXDE Lite or system console. If version is 6.5.22 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -u admin:password http://localhost:4502/system/console/status-productinfoVerify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields with XSS payloads to confirm sanitization.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content modifications by low-privileged users
- Script tags or JavaScript in form submissions
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script payloads in form parameters
SIEM Query:
source="aem-access.log" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")