CVE-2025-46858 in Experience Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 06/11/2025
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by a low privileged 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 • 06/11/2025
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive content management platform widely deployed across enterprise environments for digital experience management. The platform serves as a central hub for content creation, management, and delivery across multiple channels. Given its critical role in enterprise digital infrastructure, vulnerabilities within AEM can pose significant risks to organizational security posture. The affected versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability that fundamentally compromises user session integrity and data confidentiality. This vulnerability specifically targets form field validation mechanisms where user input is not properly sanitized before storage and subsequent rendering.
The technical flaw manifests in the insufficient sanitization of user-supplied data within form fields that are subsequently stored in the system's database. When a low privileged attacker submits malicious JavaScript code through a vulnerable form field, the platform fails to adequately filter or escape the input before persisting it to the backend storage. This stored malicious content becomes executable when other users view the affected page containing the vulnerable field, creating a classic stored XSS attack vector. The vulnerability operates at the application layer where user input validation occurs, bypassing standard browser security mechanisms that typically protect against such attacks. The attack requires minimal privileges to exploit, making it particularly dangerous as it can be leveraged by users with limited access rights to compromise higher-privilege users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, potentially enabling attackers to steal session cookies, perform actions on behalf of victims, or redirect users to malicious sites. When exploited, the vulnerability allows attackers to establish persistent footholds within the application environment, potentially leading to privilege escalation or data exfiltration. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that the malicious payload remains active until manually removed, creating a long-term threat vector that can affect multiple users over extended periods. Organizations utilizing AEM for sensitive content management or user interaction may experience significant data compromise, as the vulnerability can be used to harvest credentials, manipulate content, or gain unauthorized access to protected resources. The attack surface is particularly concerning in environments where AEM is used for customer-facing applications or internal collaboration platforms.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate patching of affected AEM versions to address the root cause of the vulnerability. Organizations must implement comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms to prevent malicious script injection at all entry points. The implementation of content security policies and proper sanitization of user inputs should be enforced across all form handling processes within the platform. Security teams should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments of all AEM instances to identify potentially affected components and establish monitoring procedures for detecting anomalous user behavior. Additional defensive measures include implementing web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious input patterns, establishing regular security audits of form fields and user input handling, and conducting security awareness training for developers to prevent similar vulnerabilities in future implementations. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in input validation and output encoding. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving client-side code execution and session hijacking, potentially enabling lateral movement and privilege escalation within the compromised environment.