CVE-2023-48580 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 digital experiences across multiple channels. The platform serves as a central hub for content management, marketing automation, and customer journey orchestration, making it a critical component in enterprise digital infrastructure. Security vulnerabilities within such platforms can have far-reaching consequences due to the sensitive data they handle and their central role in business operations.
The stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.18 and earlier stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the platform's form processing capabilities. This flaw specifically affects how the system handles user input in form fields, failing to properly sanitize or escape potentially malicious script content before storing it in the database. The vulnerability manifests when low-privileged users can submit form data containing malicious javascript code that gets stored and subsequently executed when other users view the affected pages. This represents a classic stored XSS attack vector where the malicious payload persists on the server and executes in the context of other users' browsers.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it creates a persistent threat vector that can be exploited by attackers with minimal privileges. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to steal session cookies, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of users, redirect victims to malicious sites, or harvest sensitive information from authenticated sessions. The low privilege requirement makes this particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by users who normally have limited access to the system, potentially escalating to more significant breaches through session hijacking or data exfiltration. This vulnerability directly aligns with CWE-79 which categorizes cross-site scripting flaws and maps to ATT&CK technique T1531 for 'Modify Application Configuration' and T1071.004 for 'Application Layer Protocol: DNS'.
Organizations should immediately implement comprehensive mitigations including updating to Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.19 or later, which contains the necessary patches for this vulnerability. Additional defensive measures include implementing strict input validation and output encoding policies, enabling content security policies to restrict script execution, and conducting regular security assessments of form inputs and user-generated content. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious script payloads, while establishing monitoring procedures to identify unusual form submission patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the importance of proper input sanitization and output encoding practices as outlined in OWASP Top Ten and the principle of defense in depth for protecting web applications from client-side attacks.