CVE-2024-26124 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 enables organizations to create, manage, and deliver personalized digital experiences across multiple channels. The platform serves as a central hub for content management, digital asset management, and customer experience orchestration, making it a critical component in enterprise digital infrastructure. Organizations rely heavily on AEM for their digital presence, with thousands of websites and applications built on this platform, creating substantial attack surface for malicious actors targeting enterprise environments.
The stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.19 and earlier stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the platform's form processing mechanisms. This flaw specifically affects how the system handles user input in form fields, failing to properly sanitize or escape potentially malicious script content before storing it in the backend database. The vulnerability manifests when an attacker submits malicious JavaScript code through form fields that are subsequently displayed to other users without proper sanitization. The root cause aligns with CWE-79 which describes improper neutralization of input during web page generation, specifically in the context of stored XSS attacks where malicious payloads are permanently stored and executed against unsuspecting users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple script execution, creating significant risks for enterprise environments that depend on AEM for their digital infrastructure. When exploited, the vulnerability allows attackers to inject persistent malicious scripts that execute in the browser context of any user who views the compromised content. This enables various attack vectors including session hijacking, credential theft, data exfiltration, and redirection to malicious sites. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that the malicious payload remains active even after the initial compromise, continuously affecting all users who encounter the vulnerable form fields. Attackers can leverage this capability to establish persistent access to enterprise networks, particularly when AEM is integrated with corporate authentication systems or used for sensitive customer data collection. The vulnerability also poses risks to user privacy and corporate data integrity, as malicious scripts can access browser storage, cookies, and potentially exfiltrate sensitive information from authenticated sessions.
Security professionals should implement immediate mitigations including updating to Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.20 or later, which contains the necessary patches for this vulnerability. Organizations must also conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all potentially affected form fields and content areas within their AEM implementations. Input validation controls should be strengthened at both the application and database levels, with proper output encoding implemented for all user-generated content. Network monitoring solutions should be configured to detect suspicious script patterns in web traffic, and web application firewalls should be deployed to filter malicious payloads. Additionally, security teams should review and update their incident response procedures to account for potential XSS exploitation scenarios, ensuring rapid detection and remediation of similar vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under T1531 which describes "Trusted Relationship" techniques, as the malicious scripts can exploit the trust relationship between users and the AEM platform to execute unauthorized code in user browsers, potentially leading to broader compromise of enterprise environments through credential theft and session manipulation attacks.