CVE-2018-15972 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.4, 6.3, 6.2, 6.1, and 6.0 have a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to sensitive information disclosure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/05/2020
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive content management platform widely deployed across enterprise environments for digital experience management. This platform serves as a central hub for content creation, management, and delivery across multiple channels and touchpoints. The vulnerability under examination affects multiple versions of this software ecosystem, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on these specific releases. The stored cross-site scripting vulnerability manifests within the platform's content handling mechanisms, specifically within how it processes and stores user input data. This flaw exists in the core content management functionality where user-supplied content is stored in the system's database without proper sanitization or validation.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the Adobe Experience Manager's content storage and retrieval processes. When users submit content through various interfaces including forms, rich text editors, or direct content entry points, the system fails to adequately sanitize the input before persisting it to the database. This stored data can then be retrieved and rendered in subsequent user interactions without proper HTML escaping or context-appropriate encoding. The vulnerability specifically affects how the system handles user-generated content that may contain malicious script tags or other XSS payload elements. Attackers can exploit this by crafting malicious content containing script code that gets stored in the system and subsequently executed when other users view the content. The stored nature of this vulnerability means that the malicious payload persists in the system's database and can affect multiple users over time rather than requiring repeated exploitation attempts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure to encompass potential privilege escalation and persistent attack vectors within the target environment. Successful exploitation allows attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript code in the context of authenticated users' browsers, potentially enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or data exfiltration from the affected systems. The vulnerability's presence in multiple versions including the widely deployed 6.4 release creates a substantial attack surface across enterprise environments. Organizations utilizing these specific AEM versions face significant risk of unauthorized access to sensitive content, user session information, and potentially administrative controls. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that even if the initial attack occurs during content creation, the malicious code can continue to affect users long after the initial compromise. This persistent nature of the vulnerability makes it particularly dangerous in environments where content is frequently shared and accessed by multiple users over extended periods.
Security professionals should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided patches and updates to address the vulnerability in affected Adobe Experience Manager installations. The recommended approach involves upgrading to patched versions of Adobe Experience Manager that contain proper input validation and output encoding mechanisms. Organizations should also implement additional defensive measures such as web application firewalls to monitor and filter suspicious content submissions, and conduct thorough security assessments of existing content to identify and remediate any already compromised data. Network segmentation and access controls should be reviewed to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in software implementations, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for scripting execution within web applications. Regular security monitoring and vulnerability scanning should be implemented to detect similar issues in other components of the Adobe Experience Manager ecosystem. Organizations must also consider implementing content security policies and enhanced user training to reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation through social engineering or privilege abuse scenarios.