CVE-2025-46898: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46898 Overview

CVE-2025-46898 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier, including the AEM Cloud Service. The flaw resides in form field handling and allows a low-privileged authenticated attacker to inject persistent JavaScript payloads. When another user browses to the affected page, the malicious script executes in their browser context. Successful exploitation requires user interaction and can lead to session compromise, credential theft, or unauthorized actions performed on behalf of the victim. Adobe addressed the issue in security bulletin APSB25-48.

Critical Impact
A low-privileged attacker can inject persistent JavaScript into AEM form fields, executing arbitrary script in the browsers of authenticated victims and enabling session hijacking or content manipulation.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager (on-premise) versions 6.5.22 and earlier
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (affected releases per APSB25-48)
AEM Forms component containing the vulnerable form field handler

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46898 published to NVD following Adobe advisory APSB25-48
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46898

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is classified as stored Cross-Site Scripting under [CWE-79], Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation. Adobe Experience Manager fails to properly sanitize or encode user-supplied content submitted into specific form fields before persisting and later rendering it back to end users. Because the payload is stored server-side, every visitor to the affected page becomes a potential victim without further attacker action.

The attack requires low privileges, meaning the attacker must hold an authenticated AEM account with permission to submit or edit content in the vulnerable form. User interaction is required, since a victim must load the page hosting the injected content. The scope is changed, indicating that script execution in the victim's browser can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component, such as adjacent AEM applications hosted on the same origin.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient output encoding and input sanitization on form field values that are rendered into HTML responses. AEM does not consistently apply context-aware escaping (HTML, attribute, or JavaScript context) to attacker-controlled strings before writing them into the DOM. This permits arbitrary <script> tags or event-handler attributes to be persisted and later executed.

Attack Vector

Exploitation proceeds over the network against the AEM authoring or delivery instance. An authenticated low-privileged user submits a crafted payload — typically a JavaScript expression wrapped in HTML tags or event handlers — into a vulnerable form field. AEM stores the value in the repository. When a privileged user, editor, or site visitor later browses the page rendering that field, the payload executes with the victim's session privileges. This can be leveraged to steal session tokens, perform CSRF-style actions against AEM APIs, or pivot to administrative functions if an administrator views the content.

No verified public proof-of-concept code is available. Refer to the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for vendor-provided technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46898

Indicators of Compromise

Form submissions or JCR node properties containing HTML tags such as <script>, <img onerror=>, <svg onload=>, or javascript: URIs
Unexpected outbound requests from editor or administrator browsers to attacker-controlled domains shortly after loading AEM content pages
Anomalous session token usage or new AEM administrative actions performed immediately after content rendering events

Detection Strategies

Audit the AEM content repository for stored properties containing script tags or JavaScript event handlers using JCR queries or oak-run tooling
Enable and review AEM Dispatcher and access logs for POST requests to form submission endpoints containing encoded script payloads
Deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) in report-only mode to identify inline script execution originating from AEM-rendered pages

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward AEM request logs, Dispatcher logs, and CSP violation reports to a centralized SIEM for correlation and alerting
Monitor for privilege escalation events and administrative changes in AEM shortly after content authoring activity
Track browser-side telemetry from managed endpoints for anomalous script execution on AEM domains

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46898

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to the fixed release identified in bulletin APSB25-48
Inventory all AEM instances, including author, publish, and Cloud Service environments, and confirm patched versions are deployed
Review recent form submissions and content edits for injected script content and remediate affected nodes
Rotate session tokens and credentials for any accounts that may have viewed compromised pages

Patch Information

Adobe released fixes on June 10, 2025 in security bulletin APSB25-48. Customers running AEM 6.5.22 or earlier must apply the corresponding service pack or cumulative fix pack. AEM as a Cloud Service customers should ensure their environment is on the current maintenance release documented in the advisory.

Workarounds

Restrict form authoring and content submission permissions to trusted users, reducing the population able to plant stored payloads
Deploy a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and untrusted script sources on AEM-delivered pages
Configure the AEM Dispatcher to filter or reject requests containing script tags and JavaScript event handlers in form parameters
Enable AEM's XSS Protection API and ensure custom components use XSSAPI.encodeForHTML() and related context-aware encoders

bash

# Example AEM Dispatcher filter rule to block obvious script payloads in POST bodies
# /etc/httpd/conf.d/dispatcher_vhost.conf
<LocationMatch "/content/.*">
    SecRule ARGS "@rx (?i)(<script|onerror=|onload=|javascript:)" \
        "id:1004698,phase:2,deny,status:403,log,msg:'AEM XSS payload blocked (CVE-2025-46898)'"
</LocationMatch>