CVE-2025-46978
📋 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 victims browse 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, redirect users to malicious sites, perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, or deploy additional malware payloads.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement of web content through script injection.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation and output encoding controls in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated low-privileged 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 AEM 6.5.23 or later from Adobe's distribution portal. 2. Follow Adobe's upgrade documentation for your deployment type (on-premise or cloud). 3. Apply the update package. 4. Restart AEM instances. 5. Verify successful upgrade.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement custom servlet filters to sanitize form field inputs before processing.
Custom Java servlet filter implementation required
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict CSP headers to limit script execution sources.
Add 'Content-Security-Policy' header configuration to web server
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content editing interfaces
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payload patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via CRXDE Lite or system console. Versions 6.5.22 or earlier are vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -u admin:password http://localhost:4502/system/console/status-productinfoVerify Fix Applied:
Verify AEM version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields with XSS payloads.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content modifications by low-privileged users
- Script tags or JavaScript in form submission logs
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script injection patterns to form endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="aem-access.log" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")