CVE-2025-46963: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46963 Overview

CVE-2025-46963 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier, as well as AEM Cloud Service. A low-privileged authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The payload persists in the application and executes in the browser of any user who loads the affected page. Adobe published guidance for this issue in security bulletin APSB25-48.

Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers with low privileges can inject persistent JavaScript that executes in victims' browsers, enabling session compromise, credential theft, and unauthorized actions within the AEM authoring context.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service
AEM form components accepting unsanitized user input

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-46963 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46963

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored XSS flaw categorized under [CWE-79]: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation. Adobe Experience Manager fails to sanitize input submitted through certain form fields before rendering that input back to users. An attacker with an authenticated low-privileged account can submit a payload containing JavaScript. The application stores the payload and later serves it as part of the rendered page. Any user who browses to the affected page executes the attacker-controlled script in their session context.

The scope is marked as changed, meaning the injected script executes in a security context different from the vulnerable component. This increases the reach of the attack beyond the attacker's original privilege boundary, potentially targeting authors, administrators, or end users interacting with published content.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient output encoding and input validation on form field content. AEM accepts HTML or script fragments in fields that should be treated as plain text or restricted markup. Without proper contextual encoding at the rendering layer, script tags and event handlers survive persistence and reach the DOM of downstream viewers.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to an AEM instance and a low-privileged authenticated account with permission to submit form content. User interaction is required, as a victim must visit the page containing the injected payload. Once loaded, the script runs with the victim's session privileges, enabling actions such as reading page content, issuing authenticated requests, or exfiltrating session tokens accessible to JavaScript.

No verified public exploit code is available for this CVE. Refer to the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for vendor-provided technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46963

Indicators of Compromise

Form field content in the JCR repository containing <script> tags, javascript: URIs, or DOM event handlers such as onerror and onload.
Unexpected outbound HTTP requests from author or publish instances originating from browser sessions viewing user-submitted content.
Author accounts submitting form data containing HTML entities or encoded script fragments inconsistent with normal editorial workflow.

Detection Strategies

Audit AEM repository nodes storing form submissions for markup that resembles script injection payloads.
Enable and review Dispatcher and access logs for POST requests to form endpoints followed by anomalous GET traffic to the same content paths.
Deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) in report-only mode to surface script execution originating from inline sources on authoring and publish tiers.

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor AEM audit logs for form submissions from low-privileged accounts targeting components known to render user input.
Alert on anomalous authentication events or session token usage following visits to pages hosting user-generated content.
Correlate browser-side error telemetry with server-side content changes to identify successful script execution.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46963

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the security update referenced in Adobe bulletin APSB25-48 to AEM 6.5.22 and earlier deployments.
Verify AEM Cloud Service instances are running a patched release channel provided by Adobe.
Review and revoke unnecessary form submission privileges from low-trust user accounts.
Inspect stored form content for persisted payloads and remove any malicious entries before restoring normal operations.

Patch Information

Adobe released fixes in the security update documented in Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48. Administrators of on-premises AEM 6.5 deployments should upgrade to the fixed service pack. AEM as a Cloud Service customers receive the fix through the managed release pipeline.

Workarounds

Restrict form submission and content authoring permissions to trusted users until the patch is applied.
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that blocks inline script execution on affected pages.
Configure AEM Dispatcher rules to filter or reject POST payloads containing script markup where feasible.
Enable XSS protection filters in front-end web application firewalls covering AEM endpoints.

bash

# Example Dispatcher filter to block obvious script markup in form POSTs
# /etc/httpd/conf.d/dispatcher.any
/0100 { /type "deny" /method "POST" /url '.*(<script|javascript:|onerror=|onload=).*' }