CVE-2024-36185 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 06/13/2024
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 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 • 03/23/2025
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive digital experience platform that powers numerous enterprise websites and web applications. This platform provides content management capabilities along with sophisticated form handling mechanisms that allow organizations to collect user data through various web forms. The vulnerability under discussion affects versions 6.5.20 and earlier, which indicates this is a long-standing issue within the product lifecycle that has persisted across multiple releases. The affected system components primarily involve the form processing and rendering modules that handle user input data before displaying it within web interfaces.
The technical flaw manifests as a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability that occurs when user input is not properly sanitized or escaped before being stored and subsequently rendered back to users. This vulnerability specifically targets form fields within the AEM interface, where attackers can inject malicious javascript code that gets stored in the system's database or content repository. When legitimate users access pages containing these vulnerable form fields, the malicious scripts execute within their browser context, potentially compromising their sessions or enabling further exploitation. The stored nature of this vulnerability means that the malicious payload persists even after the initial injection, making it particularly dangerous as it can affect multiple users over time.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it creates potential entry points for more sophisticated attacks within the target environment. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to steal session cookies, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of users, redirect victims to malicious sites, or even establish persistent backdoors within the compromised web application. The vulnerability's presence in a content management system like AEM creates additional risks since these platforms often contain sensitive organizational data, user information, and administrative interfaces. The impact is particularly severe in enterprise environments where AEM is used for customer-facing applications, internal portals, or applications handling confidential data.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations that focus on input validation and output encoding to prevent malicious script injection. The most effective approach involves implementing comprehensive sanitization of all user input data before storage, combined with proper HTML escaping when rendering content back to users. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls with XSS detection capabilities and conduct thorough code reviews to identify similar vulnerabilities in custom extensions or third-party components. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and its exploitation patterns correspond to techniques described in the ATT&CK framework under T1566 for initial access through web application attacks. Organizations must also perform regular security assessments and maintain up-to-date patch management processes to address such vulnerabilities proactively.