CVE-2025-46888: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46888 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 view the page containing the affected field. The flaw affects both on-premises AEM 6.5.x deployments and AEM as a Cloud Service. Adobe published the fix in security bulletin APSB25-48.

Critical Impact
Attackers with low privileges can persist JavaScript payloads inside AEM form fields, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, and unauthorized actions in authenticated user sessions.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier (on-premises)
Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service (AEM CS)
AEM Forms components accepting user-supplied field input

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46888 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46888

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored XSS flaw in Adobe Experience Manager form-handling components. AEM fails to properly sanitize input written into form fields before rendering it back to users. An authenticated attacker with low privileges, such as a content author role, can submit crafted input containing HTML or JavaScript. The server persists the payload in the underlying content repository.

When another user, including higher-privileged administrators or unauthenticated site visitors, loads the affected page, the browser parses the stored markup and executes the injected script. Because execution occurs in the victim's browser context under the AEM origin, attackers can steal session cookies, perform actions on behalf of the victim, or pivot to further compromise of the CMS. The scope-changed CVSS metric reflects that content authored in the AEM authoring instance can affect users on the delivery instance.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient output encoding of user-controlled data written into form field attributes or values. AEM stores the raw input in the JCR repository and later renders it into HTML without contextual escaping, violating the standard output-encoding guidance for CWE-79.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to an AEM authoring or forms endpoint and valid low-privileged credentials. The attacker submits a form field value containing a script payload such as an onerror handler on an image tag or an inline event attribute. User interaction is required: a victim must browse the page hosting the injected field. Adobe has not reported active exploitation, and no public proof-of-concept is listed.

See the Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-48 for vendor technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46888

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, javascript: URIs, or inline event handlers (onerror, onload, onclick) stored in AEM form field values within the JCR repository.
Anomalous outbound requests from browsers viewing AEM-hosted pages to attacker-controlled domains, suggesting cookie exfiltration.
Content modifications from low-privileged author accounts touching form components outside their normal working scope.

Detection Strategies

Query the JCR repository for form field properties containing HTML control characters or script keywords, and review recent changes made by author-level accounts.
Enable and review AEM Dispatcher and access logs for unusual POST bodies containing encoded script fragments targeting /content/forms/ paths.
Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) reporting to capture inline-script violations that indicate injected payloads executing in end-user browsers.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward AEM audit logs and web server logs to a centralized SIEM for correlation of authoring activity with delivery-side script execution.
Alert on new or modified components authored outside business hours or by accounts with recent privilege changes.
Monitor browser telemetry and CSP violation reports for repeated inline-script blocks originating from AEM-served pages.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46888

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Adobe security update referenced in bulletin APSB25-48 to upgrade Adobe Experience Manager beyond version 6.5.22.
Audit author, contributor, and forms-user accounts and revoke unnecessary privileges to reduce the pool of accounts that can inject content.
Inspect existing form components for previously stored script payloads and remove or sanitize any suspicious entries.

Patch Information

Adobe addressed the vulnerability in the AEM 6.5 Service Pack referenced in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-48. AEM as a Cloud Service customers receive the fix through the standard cloud release channel. Administrators should validate the installed service pack version against the bulletin's fixed release list after patching.

Workarounds

Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and restricts script sources to trusted origins on both authoring and publish tiers.
Configure AEM Dispatcher rules to filter or reject request payloads containing HTML tags or script keywords in form field parameters.
Restrict access to form authoring paths with tighter ACLs so only vetted, trained authors can modify form components until the patch is applied.

bash

# Example AEM Dispatcher filter to block script payloads in form submissions
/0100 { /type "deny" /url "*<script*" }
/0101 { /type "deny" /url "*javascript:*" }
/0102 { /type "deny" /url "*onerror=*" }