CVE-2024-26102 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 03/18/2024
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.19 and earlier are affected by a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. If an attacker is able to convince a victim to visit a URL referencing a vulnerable page, malicious JavaScript content may be executed within the context of the victim's browser.
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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 delivery. The platform's architecture includes multiple web interfaces and administrative components that handle user interactions through web-based protocols. This particular vulnerability exists within the platform's handling of user-supplied input in web request parameters, specifically affecting the way the system processes and renders URLs containing potentially malicious script content. The reflected XSS flaw emerges from insufficient validation and sanitization of input parameters that are directly incorporated into web responses without proper encoding or filtering mechanisms. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious URLs that contain script payloads designed to execute within the victim's browser context when the URL is visited.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from the platform's failure to adequately sanitize user input before rendering it in web responses. When a user accesses a maliciously crafted URL, the application reflects the attacker's script content directly back to the victim's browser without proper HTML encoding or output filtering. This allows the malicious JavaScript code to execute in the victim's browser session, potentially compromising the user's interaction with the AEM platform. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 6.5.19, indicating a widespread issue within the platform's core web application framework. The reflected nature of the vulnerability means that the malicious script is not stored on the server but rather injected through the request itself, making it particularly challenging to detect and prevent through traditional server-side security measures.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it can enable attackers to hijack user sessions, steal sensitive information, manipulate content, or redirect users to malicious websites. An attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to administrative functions, compromise user credentials, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. The severity is amplified by the fact that AEM is commonly used in enterprise environments where users may have elevated privileges and access to sensitive business data. This vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted attacks against specific users within an organization, particularly those with administrative access to the AEM platform. The reflected nature also makes it easier for attackers to deploy this exploit through social engineering campaigns, where victims might be tricked into visiting malicious URLs through phishing emails or compromised websites.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigation strategies including applying the latest security patches released by Adobe, which address the input validation and output encoding deficiencies in the affected versions. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls can provide additional defense-in-depth by filtering suspicious script content in HTTP requests. Input validation should be strengthened at multiple layers, including client-side and server-side filtering, with particular attention to URL parameters and user-supplied content. Security teams should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of the affected AEM versions within their infrastructure and prioritize remediation efforts based on the criticality of the affected systems. Regular security monitoring and log analysis should be enhanced to detect potential exploitation attempts, while user education programs can help reduce the risk of successful social engineering attacks that leverage this vulnerability. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and represents a common attack vector that maps to multiple ATT&CK tactics including initial access through malicious links and execution through browser-based attacks.