CVE-2018-4930 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.3 and earlier have an exploitable Cross-site scripting vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to sensitive information disclosure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/07/2020
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.3 and earlier contain a cross-site scripting vulnerability that represents a significant security risk for organizations relying on this content management platform. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-site Scripting, which is classified as a critical weakness in web applications that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. The flaw exists within the platform's handling of user input and output encoding mechanisms, creating an opportunity for attackers to execute malicious scripts in the context of the victim's browser session.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate sanitization of user-supplied data within the AEM interface. When users interact with the platform's web forms, content editors, or administrative interfaces, the system fails to properly validate and escape special characters in input fields. This allows malicious actors to inject script code that executes in the browser of legitimate users who view the affected content. The vulnerability specifically impacts the platform's rich text editing capabilities and content management features where user-generated content is rendered without proper security filtering.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as successful exploitation could lead to sensitive information disclosure and potential privilege escalation within the AEM environment. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to steal session cookies, access administrative interfaces, or extract confidential data from the platform's database. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that AEM is widely used for enterprise content management, digital asset management, and web publishing, making it a prime target for adversaries seeking to compromise organizational digital infrastructure. The vulnerability's exploitable nature means that even a single compromised user session could provide attackers with access to sensitive corporate information.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including applying the latest security patches from Adobe, which address the specific XSS vulnerabilities in AEM versions 6.3 and earlier. Additional protective measures include implementing robust input validation, output encoding, and content security policies to prevent script injection. The mitigation strategy should align with ATT&CK framework techniques for defending against web application attacks, particularly focusing on input validation and output encoding controls. Security teams should also conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments of their AEM environments and implement web application firewalls to detect and block malicious script injection attempts. Regular security monitoring and user access controls should be enhanced to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation attempts.