CVE-2025-46903: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46903 Overview

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability [CWE-79]. A low-privileged attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The payload executes in a victim's browser when they navigate to a page containing the affected field. Adobe published the fix in security bulletin APSB25-48. The vulnerability affects both on-premise AEM deployments and AEM Cloud Service instances.

Critical Impact
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can store JavaScript payloads that execute in victims' browsers, enabling session theft, credential harvesting, and unauthorized actions performed under the victim's identity.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier (on-premise)
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (AEM as a Cloud Service)
AEM Forms component with vulnerable form fields

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46903 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-2025-46903

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored Cross-Site Scripting flaw in Adobe Experience Manager form field handling. AEM fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before persisting it and rendering it back in the browser. An attacker with low-privileged access to the authoring or content submission interface can save a JavaScript payload into a vulnerable field. When another user, including a higher-privileged administrator, loads the page containing that field, the script executes in their browser session.

The scope change indicated by the CVSS vector reflects that the injected script executes in the security context of any user who views the affected content, not just the attacker. User interaction is required because the victim must browse to the affected page. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper output encoding and input sanitization in AEM form field rendering. Input submitted through affected form fields is stored in the repository and later reflected into HTML responses without adequate contextual escaping. Because AEM handles both authoring and delivery, unsanitized markup written by low-privileged authors reaches end users at rendering time.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the AEM instance and valid low-privileged credentials, such as an author or contributor account. The attacker submits a crafted payload into a vulnerable form field where content is stored server-side. When a victim, typically an administrator or another authenticated user, opens the page containing the malicious field, the script executes in their browser. Consequences include session cookie theft, forced actions against the AEM console, and pivoting to other users of the same origin.

No public proof-of-concept exploit is available, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. See the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for vendor technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46903

Indicators of Compromise

Form field content in the JCR repository containing <script>, javascript:, or event handler attributes such as onerror= and onload=.
HTTP POST requests from low-privileged AEM accounts to form submission endpoints with encoded script payloads.
Unexpected outbound connections from user browsers to attacker-controlled domains after loading AEM-authored pages.
Audit log entries showing edits to form components by accounts that do not normally modify content.

Detection Strategies

Review AEM audit logs and repository history for content changes made by low-privileged users containing HTML markup or JavaScript syntax.
Deploy web application firewall rules that inspect POST bodies to AEM form endpoints for script tags and encoded XSS patterns.
Perform periodic content scans of stored form field data for unescaped HTML that should be plain text.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward AEM access.log and audit.log to a central SIEM and alert on script-like patterns in submitted form values.
Monitor authenticated browser sessions for anomalous DOM modifications or unexpected cross-origin requests after navigating AEM-hosted pages.
Track privilege usage of author-tier accounts and alert on activity outside their typical content areas.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46903

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to the fixed version identified in APSB25-48 for on-premise deployments.
For AEM as a Cloud Service, confirm the environment is running the patched release published by Adobe.
Audit all low-privileged accounts and remove or disable accounts that are no longer required.
Review stored content in affected form components and remove any embedded script payloads.

Patch Information

Adobe addressed the vulnerability in the security update documented in Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48. On-premise customers must apply the AEM 6.5 Service Pack or hotfix referenced in the advisory. AEM Cloud Service customers receive the fix automatically through Adobe's release pipeline. Verify the deployed version after patching and re-scan repository content for previously stored malicious payloads.

Workarounds

Restrict access to form authoring interfaces to trusted users while the patch is deployed.
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts on AEM-delivered pages to reduce XSS impact.
Place a web application firewall in front of AEM and block requests containing script tags or common XSS payloads in form field parameters.
Enable browser session hardening including HttpOnly and Secure flags on AEM session cookies to reduce cookie theft risk.

bash

# Example Content-Security-Policy header for AEM Dispatcher
Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'self'"
Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
Header always edit Set-Cookie ^(.*)$ $1;HttpOnly;Secure