CVE-2023-48569 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.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/20/2025
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive digital experience platform that enables organizations to create, manage, and deliver personalized content across multiple channels. The platform serves as a central hub for digital marketing activities and content management, making it a critical component in enterprise digital infrastructure. This stored cross-site scripting vulnerability affects versions 6.5.18 and earlier, indicating a significant security gap in the platform's input validation and output sanitization mechanisms. The vulnerability resides within the form field processing capabilities of the AEM system, where user inputs are not properly sanitized before being stored and subsequently rendered back to users.
The technical flaw manifests as a stored XSS vulnerability that occurs when malicious scripts are injected into form fields and subsequently stored within the AEM database or content repository. This allows an attacker to bypass standard security controls that typically protect against reflected XSS attacks, as the malicious payload persists and executes whenever the compromised form field is displayed to any user. The vulnerability specifically targets the rendering process of form fields, where user-supplied content is directly embedded into HTML output without proper context-aware escaping or sanitization. This weakness enables attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code that executes in the victim's browser context when they navigate to pages containing the compromised form fields.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it provides attackers with the ability to hijack user sessions, steal sensitive information, perform unauthorized actions within the application, and potentially escalate privileges within the AEM environment. Low-privileged attackers can exploit this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to user data, manipulate content, or establish persistent access points within the digital experience platform. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that the malicious payload remains active even after the initial injection, creating a persistent threat that can affect multiple users over extended periods. This vulnerability directly violates security principles outlined in CWE-79 which addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 which covers social engineering tactics involving malicious content injection.
Organizations utilizing Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.18 and earlier face significant risks from this vulnerability, particularly in environments where user-generated content is accepted through forms or content submission mechanisms. The attack surface expands to include any form field within the AEM system that processes user input, making comprehensive mitigation challenging. Security teams must implement immediate remediation measures including applying the latest patches from Adobe, implementing additional input validation controls, and conducting thorough vulnerability assessments of all form-based content submission points. Organizations should also consider implementing content security policies, output encoding mechanisms, and regular security scanning of their AEM environments to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being exploited. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of proper input validation and output sanitization in web applications, particularly those handling user-generated content, and demonstrates the necessity of maintaining up-to-date security patches across all components of enterprise digital platforms.