CVE-2024-26041 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 03/18/2024
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.19 and earlier are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by an 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 • 04/16/2025
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive content management platform widely adopted across enterprise environments for digital experience management. The platform serves as a central hub for creating, managing, and delivering digital content across multiple channels including websites, mobile applications, and digital marketing campaigns. Organizations rely heavily on AEM for its robust feature set including form management, user authentication, and content personalization capabilities. The platform's architecture integrates multiple components including authoring environments, publish instances, and various backend services that collectively handle user interactions and content delivery. Security of AEM implementations is critical as these systems often contain sensitive corporate data, user credentials, and business-critical digital assets that require protection against various cyber threats.
The vulnerability in question manifests as a stored cross-site scripting flaw within the form processing functionality of Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.19 and earlier. This vulnerability specifically affects how the platform handles user input within form fields, creating an opportunity for attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code that persists in the system. The flaw occurs when user-supplied data is not properly sanitized or validated before being stored and subsequently rendered back to users. The stored nature of this vulnerability means that malicious scripts remain embedded within the application's database or storage mechanisms, making them persistent across multiple user sessions and browser interactions. When legitimate users access pages containing these compromised form fields, the malicious code executes within their browser context, potentially leading to unauthorized actions, data theft, or further exploitation of the victim's session.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it can enable attackers to perform various malicious activities through the victim's browser context. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious websites, modify content displayed to users, or even escalate privileges within the application. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that once exploited, the malicious code can affect multiple users over time without requiring repeated exploitation attempts. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where AEM systems handle sensitive data and user interactions. The attack surface is broad as any form field within the AEM system could potentially be compromised, including user registration forms, contact forms, feedback mechanisms, and administrative interfaces.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching of affected AEM instances to the latest available versions that contain the necessary security fixes. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms to prevent malicious code injection into form fields. The principle of least privilege should be enforced by restricting user permissions and implementing proper access controls to limit potential damage from successful exploitation attempts. Security monitoring should include regular scanning of form fields and user input areas for suspicious content patterns. Network segmentation and web application firewalls can provide additional layers of protection by filtering malicious requests before they reach the vulnerable application components. Organizations should also conduct thorough security assessments of their AEM implementations to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities throughout their digital infrastructure. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and could potentially map to ATT&CK techniques involving initial access through web application vulnerabilities and privilege escalation through session hijacking.