CVE-2024-26069 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 • 04/15/2025
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive digital experience platform that serves as a cornerstone for enterprise content management and digital asset handling. The platform's widespread adoption across organizations makes it a prime target for attackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities that could compromise entire digital ecosystems. This particular vulnerability resides within the form handling mechanisms of AEM versions 6.5.19 and earlier, where user input is not properly sanitized before being stored and subsequently rendered back to users. The stored XSS vulnerability creates a persistent threat vector that allows malicious actors to inject malicious JavaScript code into form fields that are later displayed to other users. When victims navigate to pages containing these compromised fields, their browsers execute the injected scripts, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data, session hijacking, or redirection to malicious sites.
The technical flaw manifests in the insufficient validation and sanitization of user-supplied content within AEM's form processing pipeline. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-79 which defines Cross-Site Scripting as a weakness where untrusted data is sent to a web browser without proper validation or encoding. The stored nature of this vulnerability means that the malicious payload persists in the application's database or storage mechanisms, making it particularly dangerous as it can affect multiple users over extended periods. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability through various means including social engineering to encourage users to submit malicious content, or by directly exploiting the form fields if they have access to them. The vulnerability impacts both the front-end user interface and backend processing components of AEM, creating a comprehensive attack surface that extends beyond simple client-side execution.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond individual user compromise, potentially enabling attackers to escalate privileges and access sensitive enterprise data. When malicious scripts execute in victim browsers, they can access cookies, session tokens, and other sensitive information that may be stored locally or transmitted during normal browsing operations. The vulnerability also enables attackers to perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, potentially leading to unauthorized content modification, data exfiltration, or complete system compromise. Organizations using AEM for critical digital experiences face significant risk as this vulnerability can be exploited to manipulate content, redirect users to phishing sites, or steal confidential information from authenticated sessions. The persistent nature of stored XSS makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can remain active for extended periods without detection, potentially allowing attackers to maintain access to compromised systems.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching of affected AEM versions to the latest security releases. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms to prevent malicious content from being stored or executed. The implementation of Content Security Policy headers can provide additional protection against script execution, while regular security scanning and monitoring of form fields can help identify potential exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and access controls should be enforced to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation, and user education programs should emphasize the importance of not submitting suspicious content to web forms. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious payloads attempting to exploit this vulnerability, and establish incident response procedures specifically tailored to address XSS-related security breaches. Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to ensure that similar vulnerabilities are not present in other components of the digital experience platform.