CVE-2023-48593 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 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 authoring capabilities for content creators and administrators. This system architecture includes sophisticated form handling mechanisms that process user inputs through various interfaces including authoring tools, public-facing websites, and administrative dashboards. The vulnerability affects the core form processing functionality that handles user-submitted data, particularly within the authoring environment where content creators can define and manage form elements. The stored XSS vulnerability specifically targets the sanitization and rendering processes of form field data, creating a persistent threat vector that can affect multiple users who interact with compromised content.
The technical flaw manifests in the insufficient validation and sanitization of user inputs within form fields, particularly when these inputs are stored and subsequently rendered back to users. When low-privileged attackers submit malicious JavaScript code through form fields, the system fails to properly sanitize this input before storing it in the database or content repository. This vulnerability stems from inadequate HTML escaping and content validation mechanisms that do not adequately filter or encode special characters that could be interpreted as executable JavaScript code. The vulnerability exists at the application layer where user-supplied data flows through multiple processing stages before reaching the final rendering phase, creating multiple potential injection points. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting flaws, and represents a classic case of stored XSS where malicious payloads persist in the system rather than being reflected in a single request.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution as it can enable attackers to escalate privileges and compromise entire user sessions. A successful exploitation allows attackers to steal session cookies, perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, and potentially gain access to sensitive administrative functions within the AEM environment. The low privilege requirement makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by users with minimal access rights, potentially leading to privilege escalation scenarios where attackers gradually increase their access level. Victims who browse to pages containing compromised form fields become unwitting participants in the attack, with their browsers executing malicious scripts that can harvest sensitive information or redirect them to phishing sites. The persistent nature of stored XSS means that the attack vector remains active until the malicious content is removed from the system, potentially affecting numerous users over extended periods.
Organizations utilizing Adobe Experience Manager must implement comprehensive mitigation strategies that address both immediate remediation and long-term security enhancements. The primary recommendation involves applying the latest security patches provided by Adobe to address the specific XSS vulnerability in affected versions. Additionally, organizations should implement robust input validation and output encoding mechanisms that ensure all user-supplied data is properly sanitized before storage and rendering. Network-level protections including web application firewalls and content filtering solutions can provide additional layers of defense against exploitation attempts. Security teams should conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify similar vulnerabilities within the AEM environment and related systems. Implementing proper access controls and privilege management ensures that even if exploitation occurs, attackers cannot escalate privileges beyond the initial compromised user account. The mitigation approach should also include user education and awareness programs to help identify potential phishing attempts and suspicious content that may indicate exploitation attempts. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1531 and T1071.1001 which cover application layer attacks and web service manipulation, while the exploitation techniques align with T1566.1001 for credential access through phishing and T1059.007 for script execution via web interfaces.