CVE-2025-64829
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23 and earlier contain a stored XSS 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 instances 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
Low-privileged users inject malicious scripts that execute when other users view affected pages, potentially stealing session tokens or performing unauthorized actions.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output encoding, the vulnerability would be prevented, though the underlying code flaw remains until patched.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires low-privileged user access to vulnerable form fields. The vulnerability is well-understood (CWE-79) and similar XSS exploits are widely available.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 6.5.24 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/experience-manager/apsb25-115.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download AEM 6.5.24 or later from Adobe's distribution portal. 2. Backup current instance and content. 3. Apply the update following Adobe's upgrade documentation. 4. Restart the AEM instance. 5. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement custom servlet filters to sanitize user input in form submissions
Implement Java servlet filter with OWASP Java Encoder library for input sanitization
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict CSP headers to mitigate XSS impact
Add 'Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'' to HTTP headers
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict low-privileged user access to form editing capabilities
- Implement web application firewall rules to block XSS payloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AEM version via OSGi console (http://[host]:[port]/system/console/bundles) or CRXDE Lite. Versions 6.5.23 and earlier are vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -s http://[host]:[port]/system/console/bundles | grep 'Adobe Experience Manager'Verify Fix Applied:
Verify version is 6.5.24 or later and test form fields with XSS payloads (e.g., <script>alert('test')</script>) to ensure they're properly sanitized.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual form submissions with script tags
- Multiple failed XSS attempts in request logs
- Suspicious content creation by low-privileged users
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script tags in form parameters
- Unusual outbound connections from AEM server after form submissions
SIEM Query:
source="aem_logs" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")