CVE-2023-48501 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 12/15/2023
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.18 and earlier are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by a low-privileged attacker to inject malicious scripts into vulnerable form fields. Malicious JavaScript may be executed in a victim’s browser when they browse to the page containing the vulnerable field.
VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/05/2024
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive content management platform widely deployed across enterprise environments for digital experience management. The platform serves as a central hub for creating, managing, and delivering digital content across multiple channels while providing robust user management and form processing capabilities. This critical stored cross-site scripting vulnerability affects versions 6.5.18 and earlier, exposing organizations to significant security risks through the manipulation of form fields that store user input without proper sanitization.
The technical flaw manifests in the insufficient validation and sanitization of user input within form fields that are subsequently rendered in web pages. When low-privileged attackers submit malicious JavaScript code through form inputs, the system stores this content without adequate filtering or encoding mechanisms. This stored data is then served to other users who browse to pages containing these vulnerable fields, creating a persistent XSS attack vector. The vulnerability specifically targets the form processing components of AEM where user-supplied data flows directly into the HTML output without proper context-aware encoding, violating fundamental web security principles and making it particularly dangerous for enterprise deployments.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it provides attackers with the ability to perform session hijacking, steal sensitive information, redirect users to malicious sites, and potentially escalate privileges within the application. Attackers can craft payloads that exploit the stored XSS to access user sessions, exfiltrate cookies, or manipulate the application interface to perform unauthorized actions. Organizations utilizing AEM for customer-facing applications, employee portals, or internal collaboration platforms face heightened risk, as the vulnerability can be leveraged to compromise user accounts and access sensitive business data. The low privilege requirement for exploitation makes this vulnerability particularly concerning for organizations with less stringent access controls or insufficient security monitoring.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.19 or later, which includes patches addressing this vulnerability through enhanced input validation and output encoding mechanisms. Security teams should implement comprehensive monitoring of form submissions and user input fields to detect potential exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and web application firewalls can provide additional defense-in-depth measures to detect and block malicious payloads. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications, and represents a significant concern under ATT&CK technique T1566 for social engineering attacks through malicious web content. Regular security assessments of form processing components and input validation mechanisms should be conducted to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in custom extensions or third-party integrations that may interact with the affected AEM components.