CVE-2025-46985
📋 TL;DR
A stored Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager allows low-privileged attackers to inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. When users visit pages containing the compromised fields, their browsers execute the attacker's code. 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 administrator session cookies, perform actions as authenticated users, deface websites, or redirect users to malicious sites.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized content modification by authenticated low-privileged users.
If Mitigated
Limited to same-origin attacks with minimal impact if proper input validation and output encoding are implemented.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but is technically simple 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. Download AEM 6.5.23 or later from Adobe's distribution portal. 2. Apply the service pack following Adobe's upgrade documentation. 3. Restart AEM instances. 4. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement server-side input validation for all form fields to sanitize user input.
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict CSP headers to limit script execution sources.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content authoring interfaces
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via the Welcome screen or CRXDE Lite. Versions 6.5.22 or earlier are vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -k https://aem-instance:4502/libs/granite/core/content/login.html | grep 'AEM 6.5'Verify Fix Applied:
Verify AEM version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields for XSS vulnerabilities.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to form submission endpoints
- JavaScript payloads in request parameters
Network Indicators:
- Suspicious script tags in HTTP POST data
- Unexpected external script loads
SIEM Query:
source="aem-access.log" AND (POST AND "/content/" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:"))