CVE-2025-46929 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 • 06/13/2025
Adobe Experience Manager represents a comprehensive digital experience platform that serves as a cornerstone for enterprise content management and digital marketing operations. The platform's architecture includes numerous form handling mechanisms that process user inputs through various interfaces including authoring tools, content editors, and public-facing web forms. These form fields typically accept diverse data types including text, multimedia content, and structured information that gets stored in the platform's repository. The vulnerability in question manifests within the form processing pipeline where input validation mechanisms fail to properly sanitize user-supplied data before storage and subsequent rendering. This creates a persistent security gap that allows attackers to embed malicious JavaScript code within form fields that will execute whenever the content is rendered in a victim's browser environment.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient input sanitization and output encoding within the AEM form processing components. When users submit data through vulnerable form fields, the system stores the raw input without adequate filtering of potentially malicious content. The vulnerability specifically affects the rendering engine that processes stored form data, failing to implement proper HTML escaping or content security policies during output generation. This stored XSS condition allows attackers to inject script tags, event handlers, or other malicious code that gets executed in the context of a victim's browser session. The low privilege requirement means that even users with minimal access rights can exploit this vulnerability, making it particularly dangerous in environments where multiple user roles exist with varying levels of access control.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution as it can enable sophisticated attack vectors including session hijacking, credential theft, and data exfiltration. Attackers can craft malicious payloads that steal cookies, capture keystrokes, or redirect users to phishing sites that appear legitimate within the AEM environment. The persistent nature of stored XSS means that once the malicious content is injected, it continues to affect all users who view the compromised pages until the content is manually removed or the vulnerability is patched. This vulnerability particularly threatens organizations that rely heavily on AEM for customer-facing applications, employee portals, or public websites where user-generated content is common. The attack surface is further expanded in multi-tenant environments where a single compromised form could potentially affect multiple organizations sharing the same platform instance.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including enhanced input validation rules, mandatory content filtering for all form fields, and regular security scanning of stored content. The implementation of Content Security Policies (CSP) should be enforced to prevent execution of unauthorized scripts even if the vulnerability is exploited. Security teams must conduct comprehensive audits of all form handling components within AEM installations and establish monitoring procedures to detect anomalous content patterns. Patch management procedures should be prioritized to ensure timely deployment of vendor security updates. From a compliance perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting flaws, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 related to spearphishing attachments, as attackers may use the vulnerability to deliver malicious payloads through compromised form submissions. Organizations should also consider implementing Web Application Firewalls (WAF) rules specifically targeting XSS attack patterns and establish incident response procedures for rapid containment of exploited vulnerabilities.