CVE-2025-46991
📋 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 these 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 deploy additional malware payloads through the victim's browser.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement of AEM content pages through injected scripts.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation, output encoding, and Content Security Policy (CSP) headers in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires low-privileged access to inject scripts into vulnerable fields. No public exploit code is currently available.
🛠️ 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 Distribution. 2. Apply the Service Pack or Cumulative Fix Pack. 3. Restart the AEM instance. 4. Verify the update completed successfully.
🔧 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 Filter
allDeploy custom servlet filters to sanitize user input in form fields before processing.
Implement Java servlet filter with OWASP Java Encoder or similar library for input sanitization
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to form editing capabilities
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block XSS payload patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via OSGi console (http://[host]:[port]/system/console/bundles) or CRX Package Manager for version 6.5.22 or earlier.Check Version:
curl -s http://localhost:4502/system/console/bundles | grep 'Adobe Experience Manager'Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm AEM version is 6.5.23 or later and test form fields with XSS payloads to ensure they are properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to form submission endpoints with script tags or JavaScript payloads
- Error logs showing input validation failures
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing <script> tags or JavaScript in form parameters
- Unexpected outbound connections from AEM server to external domains
SIEM Query:
source="aem_access.log" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")