CVE-2025-46976
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability that allows low-privileged attackers to inject malicious JavaScript into form fields. When users visit pages containing the compromised fields, their browsers execute the attacker's code. This affects organizations using vulnerable AEM installations for content management.
💻 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 full system compromise.
Likely Case
Attackers with low privileges could steal session tokens from other users, escalate privileges, or perform limited malicious actions within the application context.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the vulnerability would be prevented, though the underlying code flaw would still exist.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires authenticated low-privilege access to 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 distribution portal. 2. Follow Adobe's upgrade documentation for your deployment type (AEM as a Cloud Service or on-premise). 3. Apply the update to all affected instances. 4. Restart AEM services.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement custom servlet filters to sanitize user input in form fields
Custom Java code required - no single command
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict CSP headers to limit script execution
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header to web server configuration
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content editing capabilities
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via OSGi console or CRXDE Lite. Navigate to /system/console/bundles and verify version is 6.5.22 or earlier.Check Version:
curl -u admin:password http://localhost:4502/system/console/bundles/org.apache.sling.installer.core | grep 'Bundle-Version'Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify version shows 6.5.23 or later. Test form fields with basic XSS payloads like <script>alert('test')</script> to ensure they're sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content modifications by low-privileged users
- JavaScript payloads in content update requests
- Multiple failed XSS attempts
Network Indicators:
- Suspicious script tags in HTTP POST requests to content endpoints
- Unexpected outbound connections from AEM to external domains
SIEM Query:
source="aem-access.log" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=") AND status=200