CVE-2025-46858: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46858 Overview

CVE-2025-46858 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier, along with AEM Cloud Service. The flaw allows a low-privileged attacker to inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The payload executes in a victim's browser when they load the page containing the affected field. Adobe published details in security bulletin APSB25-48. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation.

Critical Impact
A low-privileged authenticated attacker can persist malicious JavaScript in AEM form fields, enabling session compromise, credential theft, and content manipulation against other authenticated users who view the affected pages.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service
AEM Forms components rendering user-controlled field values

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46858 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46858

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored XSS flaw in Adobe Experience Manager form field handling. AEM fails to properly neutralize user-supplied input before persisting it to the content repository and rendering it back to authors and end users. An authenticated attacker with low privileges submits a crafted payload into a vulnerable form field. AEM stores the raw payload and later reflects it into HTML output without adequate encoding. When another user browses to the affected page, the injected JavaScript executes in the context of the AEM origin.

Because the scope is marked as changed, the impact crosses security boundaries — a payload executed in an author or administrator session can act on resources beyond the attacker's initial privileges. User interaction is required because a victim must load the page hosting the tainted field.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper output encoding on form field values, consistent with [CWE-79]. AEM's rendering pipeline should apply context-aware encoding — HTML entity encoding for element content, attribute encoding for attribute values, and JavaScript escaping for script contexts. The affected code path emits stored field data into HTML without applying the correct encoder, allowing <script> tags and event handlers such as onerror or onload to execute.

Attack Vector

An attacker authenticates to AEM with a low-privilege account that can edit or submit form content. The attacker injects a JavaScript payload into a vulnerable form field and saves the change. When an author, reviewer, or end user later opens the page containing that field, their browser parses the injected markup and executes the script under the AEM domain. The payload can steal session cookies, issue authenticated requests, or modify page content viewed by other users.

No verified public exploit code has been published for this issue. See the Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-48 for vendor-provided details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46858

Indicators of Compromise

Form field values in the JCR repository containing <script>, javascript:, or inline event handlers such as onerror= and onload=
Unexpected outbound requests from author or publish instances to attacker-controlled domains after content is rendered
Session cookie theft patterns or anomalous authenticated API calls originating from AEM author sessions

Detection Strategies

Audit AEM content repository nodes for stored HTML or JavaScript in fields that should contain plain text
Review AEM access.log and request.log entries for POST requests to form submission endpoints containing encoded angle brackets, script tags, or event handler attributes
Enable and monitor Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports to catch inline script execution on rendered pages

Monitoring Recommendations

Correlate AEM author activity with unusual DOM modifications or outbound network calls from browsers loading authored pages
Alert on low-privileged user accounts editing form components that are consumed by higher-privileged workflows
Log and review changes to Sling model outputs and HTL templates for tainted variable rendering

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46858

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to a version newer than 6.5.22 as directed in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-48
For AEM Cloud Service, confirm your instance is running the current release that includes the fix
Restrict form-editing permissions to trusted users until patching is complete
Audit existing form field content for previously injected payloads and sanitize affected nodes

Patch Information

Adobe released patches for Adobe Experience Manager addressing CVE-2025-46858 in security bulletin APSB25-48. Customers running AEM 6.5.22 or earlier must upgrade to the fixed release. AEM Cloud Service customers receive the fix through the managed release channel. Reference the Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-48 for the specific fixed versions and installation instructions.

Workarounds

Apply a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and restricts script sources to trusted origins
Enforce output encoding in custom HTL and JSP components using AEM's XSS API (XSSAPI.encodeForHTML, XSSAPI.encodeForHTMLAttr, XSSAPI.encodeForJSString)
Reduce the number of accounts with content-authoring privileges on form components

bash

# Example Content Security Policy header for AEM dispatcher
# Add to the dispatcher or web server configuration
Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'self'; report-uri /csp-report"