CVE-2025-47057: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-47057 Overview

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability [CWE-79]. A low-privileged authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. The payload executes in a victim's browser when they view the page containing the affected field.

The flaw affects both on-premises AEM 6.5.x deployments and the AEM Cloud Service. Adobe published the fix in security bulletin APSB25-48 on June 10, 2025.

Critical Impact
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can persist arbitrary JavaScript in AEM content, enabling session theft, phishing, and content defacement against users who load the affected pages.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22 and earlier (on-premises)
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service (AEM as a Cloud Service) prior to the fixed release
All AEM Sites and Forms deployments exposing the vulnerable form components

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-10 - Adobe releases security bulletin APSB25-48 addressing the vulnerability
2025-06-10 - CVE-2025-47057 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-47057

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored (persistent) Cross-Site Scripting flaw in AEM form field handling. AEM fails to properly sanitize or encode user-supplied input written into specific form field attributes. The unsanitized data is later rendered into HTML served to other users.

Because the payload is stored server-side, every user who loads the affected page triggers execution. The scope is marked as changed, meaning the injected script executes in the context of the AEM authoring or delivery site and can affect resources beyond the attacker's initial privilege boundary.

Exploitation requires low privileges (an authenticated content contributor role) and user interaction from the victim (loading the affected page). The impact is limited to confidentiality and integrity of the browser session; availability is not affected.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient output encoding of user-controlled input written to form field attributes within AEM components. Input passed through the authoring interface is stored in the JCR repository and later reflected into rendered HTML without HTML-entity encoding, allowing <script> tags or event handler attributes to break out of the intended data context.

Attack Vector

An attacker with a low-privileged AEM author account submits a form field value containing a JavaScript payload. AEM persists the payload in the content repository. When any user browses to the page hosting the vulnerable form component, the browser parses the injected markup and executes the script in the origin of the AEM site. Delivery is over the network and requires no elevated privileges beyond basic authoring access.

See the Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for vendor-provided technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-47057

Indicators of Compromise

Form field values in the JCR repository containing <script>, javascript:, onerror=, onload=, or onmouseover= substrings
Unexpected outbound requests from author or publish instances to attacker-controlled domains referenced by injected scripts
Anomalous cookie or session token exfiltration attempts recorded in web proxy or web application firewall logs
Modifications to form component properties by low-privileged author accounts outside normal content workflows

Detection Strategies

Query the JCR repository for property values matching common XSS payload patterns across cq:Page and form component nodes
Enable and review AEM audit logs for form field edits performed by non-privileged authors
Deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) in report-only mode to surface inline script violations originating from AEM-rendered pages
Correlate authoring actions with subsequent client-side script execution errors reported by browser telemetry

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor AEM error.log and request.log for unusual form submission patterns from author accounts
Alert on CSP violation reports referencing unexpected script sources on published AEM pages
Track new or modified components authored by accounts that recently gained contributor access
Ingest AEM and dispatcher logs into a centralized SIEM for correlation with browser-side telemetry

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-47057

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade AEM 6.5.x to the fixed service pack referenced in Adobe bulletin APSB25-48
Confirm AEM as a Cloud Service instances are running the latest release version
Audit low-privileged author accounts and revoke access that is not operationally required
Review recent form component changes for injected script content and remove any confirmed payloads

Patch Information

Adobe addressed the vulnerability in the update published on June 10, 2025. Refer to Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-48 for the exact patched versions and download locations for AEM 6.5 Service Pack and AEM Cloud Service releases.

Workarounds

Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and restricts script sources to trusted origins
Configure the AEM Dispatcher to filter suspicious payloads in form submissions before they reach the publish tier
Restrict authoring privileges using the principle of least privilege, limiting who can edit form components
Apply input validation at the component level to reject markup characters in fields that should contain plain text

bash

# Example Dispatcher filter rule to block script tags in form POST bodies
/0100 { /type "deny" /method "POST" /url "*.form.html*" /selectors '.*<script.*' }
/0101 { /type "deny" /method "POST" /url "*.form.html*" /selectors '.*javascript:.*' }