CVE-2025-46841: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46841 Overview

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability [CWE-79]. A low-privileged authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The payload executes in a victim's browser when they visit the affected page. Exploitation requires user interaction and results in scope change, allowing the injected script to affect resources beyond the vulnerable component. Adobe addressed this issue in security bulletin APSB25-48.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can persist malicious JavaScript in AEM form fields, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, and unauthorized actions in the context of any visiting user.

Affected Products

• Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier (on-premise)
• Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service
• AEM Forms component (vulnerable form field handling)

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46841 published to NVD
• 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46841

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored XSS flaw in Adobe Experience Manager form fields. Stored XSS occurs when an application saves untrusted input and later renders it in a browser without proper output encoding. In this case, an authenticated user with low privileges can submit crafted content that AEM persists to backend storage. When another user loads a page rendering the tainted field, their browser executes the attacker-supplied JavaScript.

Because the CVSS scope is changed, executed script can act beyond the immediate component, reaching authenticated sessions of administrators or content authors. Successful exploitation can lead to session token theft, forced content changes, or pivoting into higher-privilege AEM administration workflows.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient neutralization of user-supplied input during web page generation [CWE-79]. AEM stores attacker-controlled data in form field values without sanitizing HTML or JavaScript metacharacters. When the field is later rendered in a response page, the browser interprets the payload as executable script rather than inert text.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the AEM instance and a valid low-privileged account, such as a content contributor. The attacker injects a JavaScript payload into a vulnerable form field. A victim, typically an administrator or another authenticated user, must load the page displaying the poisoned field. The payload then runs in the victim's browser session under the AEM origin.

The vulnerability manifests in form field rendering paths within AEM. See the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for full technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46841

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected <script>, onerror=, onload=, or javascript: strings persisted in AEM form field content or JCR nodes.
• Outbound browser requests from AEM author or publish sessions to unfamiliar external domains carrying cookie or token data.
• Anomalous administrative actions performed shortly after a content author loads a page containing a modified form.

Detection Strategies

• Query the JCR repository for form field properties containing HTML tags, event handler attributes, or encoded script markers.
• Review AEM access logs for POST requests from low-privileged accounts that modify form component properties, then correlate with subsequent renders by higher-privileged users.
• Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) reporting and monitor report-uri endpoints for script-src violations originating from AEM pages.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Baseline normal form authoring activity per user role and alert on deviations, such as bulk edits to form components by newly created accounts.
• Monitor web application firewall (WAF) logs for XSS signatures on requests targeting /content/forms/ and related AEM paths.
• Track browser error telemetry and CSP violation reports centrally to surface script execution attempts originating from stored payloads.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46841

Immediate Actions Required

• Apply the Adobe security updates listed in bulletin APSB25-48 to all AEM 6.5.x on-premise instances and confirm AEM Cloud Service tenants are on the patched release.
• Audit accounts with form authoring permissions and revoke access for unused or unnecessary low-privileged users.
• Search the JCR repository for persisted script payloads in existing form field content and remove or sanitize offending entries.

Patch Information

Adobe released fixes in security bulletin APSB25-48. Administrators should upgrade Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 to the version identified in the advisory and validate that AEM as a Cloud Service instances receive the corresponding update. Full remediation details are available in the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48.

Workarounds

• Enforce a strict Content Security Policy on AEM-delivered pages to block inline script execution and untrusted script sources.
• Restrict form authoring permissions in the AEM permission model so only trusted roles can modify form components until patching completes.
• Place AEM author instances behind a WAF configured with XSS input validation rules for form submission endpoints.

# Example CSP header to reduce stored XSS impact on AEM-delivered pages
Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; report-uri /csp-report