CVE-2024-26103 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 versions 6.5.19 and earlier contain a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability that represents a significant security risk for organizations relying on this content management platform. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is one of the most prevalent and dangerous web application security flaws identified by the Common Weakness Enumeration database. The flaw occurs when the application fails to properly sanitize user input before reflecting it back to the browser, creating an opening for malicious actors to inject executable JavaScript code.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the AEM application's handling of HTTP request parameters. When users navigate to specific URLs that contain unvalidated input, the application processes these parameters and includes them directly in the HTTP response without proper sanitization. This allows attackers to craft malicious URLs containing JavaScript payloads that execute in the victim's browser context. The reflected nature of this 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 security measures.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it provides attackers with the ability to perform various malicious activities within the victim's browser session. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to steal session cookies, perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, redirect victims to malicious websites, or even harvest sensitive information from the victim's browsing session. The attack requires social engineering to convince victims to click on malicious links, but once executed, the consequences can be severe, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive content management systems, data breaches, or further exploitation of the compromised session. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations using AEM for content management, digital asset management, and web publishing, where the impact of a successful XSS attack could compromise entire digital platforms.
Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation by upgrading to Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 or later, which contain the necessary patches to address this vulnerability. Additionally, implementing proper input validation and output encoding mechanisms should be considered as temporary mitigations while awaiting the official security updates. Security teams should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify any other potentially affected components within their AEM deployments and review access controls to limit the impact of potential exploitation. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under T1531 and T1059.007, which represent 'Modify Application Runtime Environment' and 'Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript' techniques respectively, emphasizing the need for comprehensive defensive measures including web application firewalls, content security policies, and regular security monitoring to detect and prevent exploitation attempts.