CVE-2025-46987 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 content management platform widely adopted by enterprises for digital experience management and web content delivery. The platform serves as a central hub for creating, managing, and publishing digital content across multiple channels while providing robust user management and workflow capabilities. Given its critical role in enterprise digital infrastructure, vulnerabilities within AEM can pose significant risks to organizational security posture and data integrity.
The stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the platform's form processing components. This flaw specifically affects form fields that accept user input and subsequently store this data within the system. When malicious users submit crafted script payloads through these vulnerable fields, the system fails to properly sanitize or encode the input before storing it in the database. The vulnerability manifests when the stored data is later rendered in web pages without appropriate security measures, allowing the malicious JavaScript code to execute within the context of authenticated users' browsers.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it enables attackers to leverage the stored XSS payload to perform various malicious activities. Low privileged attackers can exploit this weakness to hijack user sessions, steal sensitive cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or even perform actions on behalf of authenticated users within the AEM environment. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that the malicious code persists in the system and can affect multiple users over time, unlike reflected XSS which requires specific user interaction. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous for enterprise environments where AEM is used for collaborative content management and where users may have varying privilege levels.
Security professionals should note that this vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in software applications. The attack pattern follows typical XSS exploitation methods documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under technique T1531, which covers "Use of Web Shell" and related malicious web-based activities. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including input validation at multiple layers, proper output encoding of user-supplied content, and regular security scanning of form fields and content management components. The recommended approach involves upgrading to patched versions of Adobe Experience Manager, implementing web application firewalls with XSS detection capabilities, and conducting thorough security assessments of all user input handling mechanisms. Additionally, organizations should review their user access controls and implement principle of least privilege to limit potential damage from successful exploitation attempts.