CVE-2024-26125 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 powers enterprise web applications and content management systems. The platform serves as a critical component in modern digital ecosystems, handling sensitive user data through various interactive forms and content submission mechanisms. When vulnerabilities exist within such foundational systems, the potential impact extends far beyond individual applications to encompass entire organizational digital infrastructures. This particular vulnerability manifests within the form processing capabilities of Adobe Experience Manager, specifically targeting the validation and rendering mechanisms that handle user-submitted content. The stored XSS vulnerability represents a sophisticated attack vector that leverages the platform's legitimate data persistence features to create persistent malicious payloads within the system's database.
The technical flaw resides in the insufficient sanitization and validation of user input within form fields that support rich text editing capabilities. When users submit content through vulnerable forms, the system fails to adequately filter or escape potentially malicious script content before storing it in the database. This weakness allows attackers to inject JavaScript code into form fields that are later rendered to other users browsing the affected pages. The vulnerability operates at the application layer where user-supplied data transitions from input to display, creating a persistent threat that remains active until manually removed from the database. This stored nature distinguishes the vulnerability from reflected XSS attacks, as the malicious payload persists within the application's data store and executes automatically when legitimate users interact with the vulnerable content.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, encompassing significant risks to user privacy, data integrity, and organizational security posture. Attackers can exploit this weakness to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious domains, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of victims, or harvest sensitive information from user interactions. The persistent nature of stored XSS means that once an attacker successfully injects malicious code, it can affect multiple users over extended periods without requiring repeated exploitation attempts. Organizations utilizing Adobe Experience Manager for customer portals, employee dashboards, or public-facing web applications face heightened risk of credential theft, data exfiltration, and reputation damage. The vulnerability particularly affects environments where user-generated content is extensively used, such as comment systems, feedback forms, and collaborative platforms that rely on rich text input capabilities.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability require immediate attention through patch management and configuration hardening. Organizations should prioritize updating Adobe Experience Manager installations to versions 6.5.20 or later, which contain the necessary fixes for the XSS vulnerability. Additionally, implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms can provide additional defense-in-depth layers. The mitigation strategy should include regular security assessments of form fields and user input handling processes, along with monitoring for suspicious content patterns. Organizations should also consider implementing web application firewalls and content security policies to detect and block malicious script injections. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting flaws, and represents a significant concern under ATT&CK technique T1566 related to social engineering through malicious content injection. The remediation process must address both immediate patch deployment and long-term architectural improvements to prevent similar vulnerabilities in other components of the digital ecosystem.