CVE-2025-47008: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-47008 Overview

CVE-2025-47008 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier, including AEM Cloud Service. The flaw resides in form field handling and allows a low-privileged authenticated attacker to inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable fields. When another user browses to a page containing the crafted field, the injected script executes in their browser session. Successful exploitation requires user interaction and can lead to session compromise, credential theft, or unauthorized actions within the victim's authenticated context. Adobe published the fix in security bulletin APSB25-48.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can persist malicious JavaScript in AEM form fields, executing arbitrary script in the browsers of authors, administrators, or site visitors who view the affected content.

Affected Products

• Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier (on-premises)
• Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (affected releases prior to fix)
• AEM form components processing user-controlled input

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-47008 published to NVD
• 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-47008

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is classified as stored Cross-Site Scripting [CWE-79]. Adobe Experience Manager fails to properly neutralize user-supplied input written to form field attributes or values before rendering that input in downstream HTML responses. Because the payload is persisted server-side, every subsequent visitor to the affected page triggers script execution without further attacker action. The attack scope is changed, meaning script executes in a security context distinct from the vulnerable component. This enables lateral impact against higher-privileged users such as content authors or administrators reviewing submitted form data.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient output encoding when AEM renders content stored via form field inputs. Input that should be treated as data is emitted into an HTML context where the browser interprets it as executable script. Standard contextual escaping for HTML body, attribute, and JavaScript contexts is not consistently applied to the affected fields.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the AEM instance and a low-privileged account with permission to submit or edit form content. The attacker injects a JavaScript payload into a vulnerable form field and saves the content. When a victim, typically a content author or administrator, opens the page containing the field, the payload executes with the victim's privileges. This can be leveraged to hijack sessions, perform CSRF-style actions, or escalate access within the AEM console.

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

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-47008

Indicators of Compromise

• Form field content containing <script>, javascript:, onerror=, onload=, or encoded variants such as <script
• Unexpected outbound HTTP requests from author or publish instances to attacker-controlled domains following page rendering
• New or modified AEM content nodes under /content or /conf created by low-privileged accounts containing HTML markup in text fields

Detection Strategies

• Review AEM access.log and request.log for POST requests to form submission endpoints containing suspicious HTML or JavaScript payloads
• Query the JCR (Java Content Repository) for stored property values matching XSS signatures across form and text component nodes
• Correlate content modification events with authentication logs to identify low-privileged accounts producing script-bearing content

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable content audit logging on all AEM authoring instances and forward events to a centralized SIEM for retention and analysis
• Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) in front of AEM with rules that inspect POST bodies for common XSS payload patterns
• Alert on browser Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports originating from AEM-hosted pages

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-47008

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager on-premises deployments to the version specified in APSB25-48, which addresses versions above 6.5.22
• Confirm AEM Cloud Service instances are on a release channel that includes the fix
• Audit existing form and text content for previously injected script payloads and remove or sanitize offending nodes
• Review and restrict form authoring permissions granted to low-privileged user groups

Patch Information

Adobe released patches through security bulletin APSB25-48. Apply the update to all AEM author and publish instances. AEM Cloud Service customers receive the fix through the standard release pipeline; verify the deployed build includes the resolution.

Workarounds

• Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disables inline script execution on AEM-served pages
• Enable AEM's built-in XSS protection APIs and confirm custom components call XSSAPI.encodeForHTML() and related helpers on all rendered fields
• Restrict form editing capabilities to trusted user groups until the patch is applied
• Deploy WAF signatures that block common stored XSS payload patterns submitted to AEM form endpoints

# Example CSP header for AEM dispatcher configuration
Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'self'"