CVE-2025-46916 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 versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a critical stored cross-site scripting vulnerability that represents a significant threat to web application security. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications. The flaw occurs when the system fails to properly sanitize user input in form fields, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code that persists within the application's database or storage mechanisms. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning because it enables attackers to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of a victim's browser session, potentially leading to complete compromise of user accounts and sensitive data exposure.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability requires minimal privileges, as attackers only need access to form fields that accept user input within the AEM interface. When a malicious script is submitted through a vulnerable form field, it gets stored server-side and subsequently rendered back to users who view the affected page. This stored nature of the vulnerability means that the malicious payload remains persistent and can affect multiple users over time. The vulnerability specifically targets the input validation and output encoding mechanisms within AEM's form processing capabilities, where user-supplied data is not adequately sanitized before being displayed to other users. This creates a direct pathway for attackers to establish persistent malicious presence within the application environment.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes organizations to significant risk of data theft, session hijacking, and privilege escalation attacks. When successful, the XSS attack can allow malicious actors to steal cookies, session tokens, and other sensitive authentication information that would enable them to impersonate legitimate users. The impact extends beyond individual user compromise to potentially affect entire organizational security postures, as attackers could use the vulnerability to establish backdoors or exfiltrate confidential content from the AEM system. Additionally, the stored nature of the vulnerability means that the attack surface remains active even after initial exploitation, potentially allowing attackers to maintain long-term access to the compromised system. This vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1531 which focuses on Establishing Persistence through Web Shell creation and maintenance.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations to address this vulnerability, including applying the latest security patches released by Adobe to remediate the XSS flaw. Additional protective measures should include enhanced input validation at multiple layers, implementing robust output encoding for all user-supplied content, and establishing comprehensive monitoring for suspicious input patterns. Network segmentation and web application firewall deployment can provide additional defense-in-depth layers to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities within the broader application ecosystem. The implementation of content security policies and strict sanitization of all user input fields represents essential defensive measures that align with industry best practices for preventing cross-site scripting attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing automated vulnerability scanning tools to continuously monitor for similar weaknesses in their AEM implementations and other web applications.