CVE-2025-54248: Adobe Experience Manager Auth Bypass

CVE-2025-54248 Overview

CVE-2025-54248 is an Improper Input Validation vulnerability [CWE-20] in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.23.0 and earlier. A low-privileged attacker can exploit the flaw over the network to bypass security controls and gain unauthorized read access to data. The vulnerability has a changed scope, meaning impact extends beyond the vulnerable component. Adobe published the issue on September 9, 2025 in security bulletin APSB25-90.

Critical Impact
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can bypass AEM security controls over the network to read data outside their authorization boundary, with no user interaction required.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.23.0 and earlier (on-premise)
Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service
Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 LTS (including SP1)

Discovery Timeline

2025-09-09 - CVE-2025-54248 published to NVD
2025-09-09 - Adobe releases security bulletin APSB25-90
2025-09-12 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-54248

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in Adobe Experience Manager's input validation logic. AEM fails to properly validate certain input before applying security checks, allowing a low-privileged authenticated user to bypass authorization controls. The bypass results in unauthorized read access to resources the attacker should not be able to view.

Because the CVSS scope is changed, the impact crosses the vulnerable component's security boundary. An attacker who authenticates with minimal privileges can reach assets managed by other components or tenants. The confidentiality impact is high, while integrity and availability are not directly affected.

AEM is widely deployed for content management, digital asset management, and customer experience workflows. Unauthorized read access in this context can expose unpublished content, internal assets, configuration metadata, or user data depending on deployment.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper input validation [CWE-20] in a request handling path. AEM accepts attacker-controlled input without sufficient sanitization or canonicalization, which causes downstream authorization logic to evaluate the request against the wrong context. The result is a security feature bypass that returns data the requester is not entitled to read.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the AEM instance and an authenticated session with low privileges. No user interaction is required. An attacker crafts a request containing malformed or unexpected input that triggers the validation flaw, then uses the resulting bypass to read protected resources. Adobe has not disclosed a public proof-of-concept and the EPSS score is 0.232%, indicating low predicted exploitation activity at this time.

No verified exploit code is publicly available. See the Adobe Experience Manager Security Advisory for vendor technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-54248

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected HTTP requests from low-privileged authenticated users targeting AEM endpoints outside their normal access patterns
Successful HTTP 200 responses to resources that should return HTTP 403 for the requesting principal
Anomalous request payloads with malformed parameters, encoded characters, or unusual path segments sent to AEM servlets

Detection Strategies

Review AEM request.log and access.log for repeated read requests from the same low-privileged account against varied content paths
Correlate AEM authorization decisions with successful resource retrievals to identify mismatches indicating bypass behavior
Baseline normal API and content access patterns per AEM user role and alert on deviations

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward AEM application logs, dispatcher logs, and authentication events to a centralized analytics platform for retention and correlation
Monitor for spikes in /content/dam, /etc, and /libs access from non-administrative accounts
Track outbound data volumes from AEM publish and author instances to detect bulk read activity

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-54248

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade AEM on-premise installations to the version specified in Adobe bulletin APSB25-90, which addresses versions later than 6.5.23.0
Verify AEM Cloud Service tenants have received the vendor-applied update
Audit low-privileged AEM accounts for unusual read activity since the publication date
Rotate credentials for any accounts that show anomalous access patterns

Patch Information

Adobe released fixes in security bulletin APSB25-90 on September 9, 2025. On-premise customers must upgrade past AEM 6.5.23.0. AEM 6.5 LTS customers should apply the LTS update referenced in the bulletin. AEM Cloud Service is updated by Adobe. Refer to the Adobe Experience Manager Security Advisory for exact build numbers.

Workarounds

Restrict network access to AEM author instances to trusted administrative networks via firewall or reverse proxy rules
Enforce least-privilege role assignments and remove unused low-privileged accounts that could be leveraged by an attacker
Configure the AEM dispatcher to filter unexpected request parameters and reject malformed paths until the patch is applied

bash

# Example dispatcher filter to deny suspicious request patterns
/0100 { /type "deny" /url '*' }
/0101 { /type "allow" /method 'GET' /url '/content/*' }
/0102 { /type "allow" /method 'GET' /url '/etc/designs/*' }
# Block direct access to internal paths from external clients
/0200 { /type "deny" /url '/libs/*' }
/0201 { /type "deny" /url '/apps/*' }