CVE-2025-46885: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46885 Overview

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-46885. A low-privileged authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The injected payload executes in the browser of any victim who visits the affected page. The vulnerability is classified under [CWE-79] and requires user interaction to trigger execution. Adobe published Security Advisory APSB25-48 addressing this issue across AEM on-premise and AEM Cloud Service deployments.

Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers can persist JavaScript in form fields to hijack sessions, steal credentials, or perform actions in the security context of victim users.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager (on-premise) versions 6.5.22 and earlier
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (AEM Cloud Service)
Deployments exposing author or form-authoring interfaces to low-privileged users

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46885 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46885

Vulnerability Analysis

The flaw is a stored XSS defect in the form-field handling of Adobe Experience Manager. AEM fails to sanitize or encode attacker-supplied content submitted through vulnerable form fields before persisting it. When another user renders the page containing the stored input, AEM returns the payload without proper output encoding. The browser interprets the payload as executable JavaScript in the origin of the AEM instance.

Exploitation requires an authenticated attacker with low privileges, which typically maps to a content author or form editor role in AEM. The attack also depends on victim interaction, meaning a target user must browse to the affected page for the script to run. Because the scope is changed, the impact extends beyond the vulnerable component and can affect resources under the same browser origin, including session cookies and DOM state of adjacent applications.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper neutralization of input during web page generation, consistent with [CWE-79]. AEM stores untrusted content in form fields without applying context-aware output encoding when rendering the field back to authors or end users. HTML, attribute, and JavaScript contexts each require distinct encoding, and the vulnerable code path does not enforce them consistently.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based. The attacker authenticates to AEM with a low-privileged account and submits a payload containing JavaScript through a susceptible form field. The payload is stored server-side within the JCR content repository. When any user with access to the affected page loads it in a browser, the stored payload executes. Because rendering happens in the AEM origin, the script can read authenticated session state and issue requests on behalf of the victim.

No verified public exploit or proof-of-concept is available. See the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for vendor-supplied technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46885

Indicators of Compromise

Form field values in the JCR repository containing <script>, javascript:, onerror=, onload=, or encoded variants such as <script>
Unexpected outbound requests from author or publish nodes to attacker-controlled domains initiated by browsers on authenticated sessions
Author account activity that submits or edits form components outside of normal working hours or from unusual IP ranges

Detection Strategies

Scan repository nodes under form component paths for HTML control characters and inline event handlers that should not appear in author-supplied text fields
Enable and review AEM audit logs for POST requests to form authoring endpoints where the request body contains script tags or DOM sinks
Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) reporting endpoints to capture inline script violations that indicate stored payload execution

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward AEM access logs and JCR audit events to a centralized SIEM for correlation with author account activity
Alert on browser-side CSP violation reports originating from /content/ and /editor.html/ paths
Track privilege changes and new author account creation to identify low-privileged accounts that could be leveraged for injection

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46885

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Adobe security update referenced in APSB25-48 to AEM 6.5.22 and earlier deployments
Audit author, contributor, and form-editor accounts and revoke access that is no longer required
Review recently modified form components for stored script payloads and remove any identified injections
Enforce a restrictive Content Security Policy on both author and publish tiers to limit inline script execution

Patch Information

Adobe released fixed builds for AEM on-premise and AEM Cloud Service as documented in Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48. Administrators of on-premise 6.5 deployments should upgrade beyond version 6.5.22. AEM Cloud Service customers receive fixes through the Adobe-managed release channel and should confirm their environment is on a patched release.

Workarounds

Restrict access to form authoring interfaces using Apache Dispatcher filters and network ACLs until the patch is applied
Apply strict role-based access control so only trusted authors can modify form components
Deploy a web application firewall rule set that blocks script tags and common XSS payloads in POST bodies targeting AEM form endpoints

bash

# Example Apache Dispatcher filter to restrict form authoring paths to trusted networks
/0100 { /type "deny" /url "/content/forms/*" }
/0101 { /type "allow" /url "/content/forms/*" /clientip "10.10.0.0/16" }