CVE-2025-46951
📋 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 install malware on client systems.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement of web pages through injected content.
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 to inject scripts into vulnerable 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. Backup your AEM instance. 2. Download and apply AEM 6.5.23 or later from Adobe's distribution portal. 3. Follow Adobe's upgrade documentation. 4. Restart the AEM service. 5. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 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 in web server or AEM dispatcher configuration
Input Validation and Output Encoding
allImplement server-side validation and encoding for all user inputs in form fields.
Configure AEM components to use HTL (Sightly) automatic context-aware escaping or implement custom XSS filters
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content authoring and form submission functionalities.
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block XSS payloads in requests.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via CRXDE Lite at /crx/de or system console. If version is 6.5.22 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -s http://localhost:4502/system/console/status-productinfo | grep 'Adobe Experience Manager'Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields with safe XSS payloads to ensure they're properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content modifications in CRX repository logs
- Suspicious script tags or JavaScript in form submission requests
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script tags or JavaScript in POST parameters to AEM authoring endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")