CVE-2025-46891: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46891 Overview

CVE-2025-46891 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier. The flaw exists in vulnerable form fields that fail to sanitize user-supplied input before storing it. A low-privileged attacker can inject malicious JavaScript that persists in the application. When a victim browses to the page containing the tainted field, the payload executes in their browser context. The issue is tracked under CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation allows attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript in victim browsers, enabling session theft, credential harvesting, and unauthorized actions in the AEM authoring context.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (affected releases per vendor advisory)
On-premise AEM deployments using form components

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46891 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2025-06-10 - Adobe releases security bulletin APSB25-48
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46891

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored (persistent) XSS flaw in Adobe Experience Manager form field handling. Input submitted through affected form fields is stored server-side without adequate output encoding or sanitization. When the affected page is rendered, the stored payload is inserted into the DOM and executed by the victim's browser.

Exploitation requires an attacker account with at least low privileges to submit content into vulnerable fields. It also requires user interaction, as a victim must load the page containing the injected script. Because the scope is changed (S:C), executed script can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component, including the authoring session and content the victim can access.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper neutralization of user input in specific AEM form field components [CWE-79]. The application stores attacker-controlled content and later renders it in an HTML context without context-aware escaping. Standard defenses such as HTML entity encoding, attribute-context encoding, or a strict Content Security Policy are either missing or bypassable in the affected code paths.

Attack Vector

An authenticated attacker submits a crafted payload containing HTML or JavaScript through an affected form field in the AEM authoring interface. The payload is persisted in the repository. When another user, typically an author, administrator, or content reviewer, opens the affected page, the browser parses and executes the injected script. The attacker can then perform any action available to the victim, including modifying content, exfiltrating session tokens, or pivoting to other AEM users.

No verified exploit code is publicly available for this CVE. See the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for vendor guidance.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46891

Indicators of Compromise

Form field values in the AEM repository containing HTML tags such as <script>, <img onerror=>, <svg onload=>, or JavaScript URI schemes.
Unexpected outbound HTTP requests from author browsers to attacker-controlled domains.
Author or admin sessions performing content changes outside normal working patterns after loading a specific page.
Anomalous entries in AEM audit.log showing content modifications by low-privileged accounts to fields consumed by higher-privileged users.

Detection Strategies

Review AEM content nodes and form submissions for HTML or script content in fields that should contain plain text.
Enable and monitor Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports to surface unexpected inline script execution.
Correlate low-privileged content submissions with subsequent administrator page loads to identify suspicious sequences.
Inspect Dispatcher and web server access logs for requests containing encoded XSS payload markers such as %3Cscript%3E or javascript:.

Monitoring Recommendations

Ingest AEM access.log, audit.log, and Dispatcher logs into a centralized analytics platform for correlation.
Alert on repeated form submissions from a single low-privileged account containing HTML control characters.
Monitor author instance browser telemetry for unexpected script execution or DOM modification events.
Track privileged user activity following content edits by low-privileged accounts to detect potential session abuse.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46891

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the security update referenced in Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 as soon as possible.
Audit existing form field content for stored payloads and remove any suspicious HTML or JavaScript entries.
Review AEM user accounts and revoke unnecessary content submission privileges from untrusted or dormant users.
Rotate session tokens and force re-authentication for author and administrator accounts after patching.

Patch Information

Adobe addressed CVE-2025-46891 in the updates listed in APSB25-48. Customers running AEM 6.5.22 or earlier should upgrade to the fixed version identified in the advisory. AEM as a Cloud Service customers should ensure their environment is on the fixed release channel.

Workarounds

Restrict access to affected form components to trusted authors only until the patch is applied.
Deploy a strict Content Security Policy on AEM author instances to limit inline script execution.
Configure the AEM Dispatcher to filter requests containing script tags or JavaScript URI schemes in form field parameters.
Require multi-factor authentication for all AEM authoring accounts to reduce the impact of session compromise.

bash

# Example Dispatcher filter rule to block obvious XSS payloads in POST bodies
# Place in dispatcher.any under /filter
/0100 { /type "deny" /method "POST" /url "*<script*" }
/0101 { /type "deny" /method "POST" /url "*javascript:*" }
/0102 { /type "deny" /method "POST" /url "*onerror=*" }