CVE-2023-48615 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 • 01/06/2024
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive digital experience platform that serves as a cornerstone for enterprise web content management and digital marketing capabilities. The platform's architecture includes sophisticated form handling mechanisms that process user inputs through various frontend and backend components. This particular vulnerability exists within the form field processing logic where user-submitted data is not adequately sanitized before being rendered back to users. The stored nature of this cross-site scripting flaw means that malicious payloads are permanently retained within the application's database or storage systems, making them persistent threats that can affect multiple users over extended periods.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the form submission handling code paths. When users submit data through forms, the system fails to properly sanitize or escape special characters that could be interpreted as HTML or JavaScript code. This weakness allows attackers to inject malicious scripts that are then stored within the application's data stores. The vulnerability specifically impacts versions 6.5.18 and earlier, indicating that the sanitization mechanisms were either inadequate or introduced after this version. The flaw operates at the application layer where user inputs are processed through the AEM content management system's form components, which are typically used for customer feedback, contact forms, and other interactive web elements.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to organizations relying on Adobe Experience Manager for their digital presence. Low-privileged attackers who can submit forms gain the ability to execute arbitrary JavaScript code in the browsers of other users who view the affected pages. This creates potential for session hijacking, credential theft, data exfiltration, and the execution of malicious payloads that can compromise user systems. The impact extends beyond individual user sessions to potentially affect the entire organization's digital infrastructure, especially when considering that AEM is often used for customer-facing applications, employee portals, and marketing campaigns. The persistent nature of stored XSS means that once an attacker successfully injects malicious code, it continues to affect users until the vulnerability is patched or the malicious content is removed from the database.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the latest security patches from Adobe, which typically address the input sanitization issues by implementing proper HTML escaping and content validation mechanisms. Network segmentation and web application firewalls can provide additional layers of protection by monitoring and filtering malicious requests before they reach the vulnerable application components. Regular security assessments and input validation testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in custom extensions or third-party integrations that may utilize the same vulnerable code patterns. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and represents a technique that attackers might utilize under ATT&CK framework's TA0001 Initial Access and TA0002 Execution phases. Organizations should also consider implementing content security policies and monitoring for suspicious form submissions to detect potential exploitation attempts.