CVE-2025-54252
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23.0 and earlier contain a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability that allows low-privileged attackers to inject malicious scripts into form fields. When victims browse pages containing these compromised fields, the scripts execute, potentially bypassing security controls. This affects organizations using vulnerable AEM instances, particularly those with user-generated content features.
💻 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, deface websites, or redirect users to malicious sites, potentially leading to account compromise and data theft.
Likely Case
Attackers with low privileges inject malicious scripts into form fields, which execute when other users view those pages, potentially stealing session data or performing limited unauthorized actions.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the malicious scripts would be neutralized, preventing execution and limiting impact to failed injection attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires low-privileged attacker access and victim interaction. Stored XSS means payload persists until cleaned.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 6.5.24.0 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/experience-manager/apsb25-90.html
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Backup your AEM instance. 2. Apply Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.24.0 or later update. 3. Verify the update completed successfully. 4. Test affected functionality.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation and Output Encoding
allImplement strict input validation on all form fields and ensure proper output encoding when displaying user content.
Content Security Policy
allImplement a strict Content Security Policy header to restrict script execution sources.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to content creation/modification features
- Implement web application firewall rules to detect and block XSS payloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via OSGi console or CRXDE. If version is 6.5.23.0 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -u admin:admin http://localhost:4502/system/console/status-productinfo.json | grep "Adobe Experience Manager"Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify version is 6.5.24.0 or later and test form fields with safe XSS payloads to ensure they're properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content modifications by low-privileged users
- Script tags or JavaScript in form submissions
- Error logs showing script execution failures
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script payloads in form parameters
- Unusual outbound connections from AEM instances
SIEM Query:
source="aem_logs" AND ("script" OR "javascript:" OR "onclick=" OR "onload=") AND event_type="form_submission"