CVE-2025-46837: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46837 Overview

CVE-2025-46837 is a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier, as well as AEM Cloud Service. A low-privileged attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The script executes in a victim's browser when the victim loads the page containing the manipulated field. Successful exploitation enables session takeover, allowing the attacker to act as the authenticated victim. Adobe published the security advisory APSB25-48 to address this issue. The flaw is categorized under [CWE-79] Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation.

Critical Impact
Attackers can hijack authenticated AEM sessions by tricking users into loading pages with injected JavaScript, compromising content integrity and confidential session data.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier (on-premises)
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (AEM CS)
AEM form authoring and rendering components

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46837 published to NVD
2025-06-13 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46837

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a reflected XSS issue in AEM form fields. AEM fails to neutralize user-controlled input before reflecting it back into rendered HTML. An attacker with low privileges can submit crafted payloads containing JavaScript into form parameters. When a victim navigates to the URL or page that reflects this input, the browser executes the script in the AEM origin context.

Because the script runs under the victim's session, the attacker can read session tokens, perform actions on behalf of the victim, and pivot to administrative functionality if the victim holds elevated privileges. The scope change indicates the executed script can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component, including authoring and publishing surfaces shared across AEM tenants.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper output encoding of attacker-supplied values rendered into HTML form contexts. AEM does not consistently apply HTML entity encoding or context-aware escaping on the reflected field values, allowing <script> tags and JavaScript event handlers to be parsed and executed by the browser.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the AEM instance, an authenticated low-privileged account, and user interaction. The attacker crafts a URL or form submission containing a JavaScript payload, then delivers the link to a higher-privileged user via phishing or internal messaging. When the victim opens the link, the payload executes and exfiltrates session cookies or issues authenticated requests to AEM endpoints.

No verified public proof-of-concept is available. The vulnerability mechanism is described in the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46837

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests to AEM form endpoints containing <script>, onerror=, onload=, or javascript: substrings in query or POST parameters
Unexpected outbound requests from authenticated user browsers to attacker-controlled domains shortly after loading AEM pages
Anomalous session reuse where a single AEM session token originates from multiple IP addresses or geographies
New or modified AEM content authored by accounts that did not initiate the change

Detection Strategies

Inspect AEM dispatcher and access logs for reflected parameter values containing HTML or JavaScript tokens
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule set that flags XSS payload signatures targeting AEM form parameter names
Correlate authentication events with subsequent privileged actions to detect session hijacking patterns
Monitor browser-side Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports for AEM origins

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward AEM application, dispatcher, and reverse proxy logs to a centralized SIEM for query and alerting
Alert on outbound requests from AEM author and publish instances that contain encoded cookie values
Track creation of administrative users or role changes initiated within minutes of a flagged XSS request

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46837

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Adobe security update referenced in APSB25-48 to all AEM 6.5.x on-premises instances
Verify AEM Cloud Service tenants are running the patched release channel
Rotate AEM session secrets and force re-authentication for all users after patching
Audit recently created or modified content and user accounts for evidence of session abuse

Patch Information

Adobe released the fix in the security bulletin APSB25-48. Upgrade AEM 6.5 to version 6.5.23 or later. AEM Cloud Service customers receive the fix through the managed release pipeline.

Workarounds

Restrict access to AEM authoring interfaces to trusted networks via VPN or IP allow-listing
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and limits script sources to known AEM domains
Configure the AEM dispatcher to reject requests with HTML or script characters in form parameters until the patch is applied
Require multi-factor authentication for all AEM accounts to limit the value of stolen session tokens

bash

# Example AEM dispatcher filter to block obvious XSS payloads
/0100 { /type "deny" /url '*<script*' }
/0101 { /type "deny" /url '*javascript:*' }
/0102 { /type "deny" /url '*onerror=*' }