CVE-2025-46902 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 and web content publishing. The platform serves as a central hub for creating, managing, and delivering digital content across multiple channels while providing robust features for form handling and user interaction. This vulnerability affects versions 6.5.22 and earlier, which have been widely adopted across various organizations for their content management capabilities and integration with other Adobe ecosystem products. The affected system architecture includes form processing components that handle user inputs through various input fields and submission mechanisms, making it susceptible to injection attacks that can compromise user sessions and data integrity.
The technical flaw manifests as a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability within the form processing functionality of Adobe Experience Manager. This vulnerability specifically targets form fields where user inputs are stored and later rendered without proper sanitization or encoding mechanisms. When a low privileged attacker submits malicious JavaScript code through a vulnerable form field, the system stores this input in its database or content repository without adequate validation. The malicious script remains persistent within the system and gets executed whenever a victim browses to the page containing the vulnerable field, as the system fails to properly escape or sanitize the stored content before rendering it in the browser context. This represents a classic stored XSS vulnerability where the attack payload is stored server-side and executed client-side when the content is retrieved and displayed to users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution as it creates a persistent threat vector that can be exploited by attackers with minimal privileges. Low privileged attackers can leverage this vulnerability to steal user session cookies, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of victims, or redirect users to malicious websites. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that the attack remains effective even after the initial exploitation, potentially affecting multiple users over extended periods. This vulnerability undermines the security posture of organizations using Adobe Experience Manager, particularly those with sensitive user data or privileged access controls, as it enables attackers to gain unauthorized access to user sessions and potentially escalate privileges within the application. The impact is particularly concerning in enterprise environments where AEM is used for customer-facing applications, internal portals, or any system handling user-generated content.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.23 or later, which contains patches addressing this vulnerability. Input validation and sanitization should be strengthened at multiple layers including client-side and server-side processing to prevent malicious scripts from being stored or executed. Content security policies should be implemented to restrict script execution and prevent unauthorized code injection. Regular security testing including dynamic application security testing and manual penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities. Additionally, organizations should monitor user activity logs for suspicious form submissions and implement proper access controls to limit which users can submit content to potentially vulnerable fields. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for initial access through malicious content, emphasizing the importance of proper input validation and output encoding in preventing such attacks.