CVE-2025-61797: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-61797 Overview

CVE-2025-61797 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 11.6 and earlier. A low-privileged attacker can inject malicious scripts into vulnerable form fields. When a victim navigates to a page containing the injected field, the malicious JavaScript executes in the victim's browser. Exploitation requires user interaction, specifically the victim opening a malicious link. The vulnerability has a changed scope, meaning the impact extends beyond the initially vulnerable component. Adobe published a security advisory tracked as APSB25-98.

Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers can persist malicious JavaScript in AEM form fields, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, and actions performed on behalf of victims within their browser context.

Affected Products

Adobe Experience Manager 11.6 and earlier
Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22.0 (Service Pack FP11.6)
Adobe Experience Manager Screens

Discovery Timeline

2025-10-14 - CVE-2025-61797 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-61797

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-61797 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) flaw categorized under [CWE-79]. The issue resides in AEM form field handling, where user-supplied input is persisted without sufficient output encoding or input sanitization. When another user renders a page containing the tainted field, the browser interprets the injected payload as executable JavaScript.

The attacker requires low-level privileges within the AEM authoring or content management interface. The changed scope in the CVSS vector indicates that a successful attack can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component itself, such as a victim's session context in a separate origin or administrative interface.

Because the payload is stored server-side, any user visiting the affected page becomes a potential target. The impact includes theft of authentication cookies, forced actions within the AEM console, and delivery of secondary payloads to content consumers.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper neutralization of user input written into web pages. AEM does not adequately encode script-bearing characters submitted through form fields before rendering them back into HTML contexts. This allows an authenticated attacker to embed <script> tags or event-handler attributes that execute when the page loads.

Attack Vector

The attack originates over the network. An authenticated low-privileged user submits crafted content into a vulnerable form field. The attacker then delivers a malicious link to a higher-privileged victim. When the victim opens the link and the page renders the stored payload, the injected script executes in the victim's browser under the AEM origin. The vulnerability is described in prose only; no public proof-of-concept exploit code is available. Refer to the Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-98 for vendor technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-61797

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, javascript: URIs, or DOM event handlers such as onerror and onload stored in AEM form field content nodes.
Outbound requests from AEM-rendered pages to unknown external domains that may indicate data exfiltration.
Anomalous form submissions from low-privileged AEM accounts containing HTML or JavaScript payloads.

Detection Strategies

Review AEM audit logs for content modifications made by low-privileged authors touching form field components.
Inspect rendered pages with automated DOM analysis tools to flag script content sourced from user-controlled fields.
Correlate suspicious authoring activity with subsequent page views from privileged accounts to identify targeting patterns.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable and centralize AEM request and audit logs, forwarding them to a SIEM for content-mutation analytics.
Deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) that reports script-source violations, providing early warning of injected payloads.
Monitor browser telemetry from privileged AEM users for anomalous script execution originating from AEM domains.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-61797

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the security update referenced in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-98 to all AEM instances running version 11.6 or earlier.
Audit AEM user roles and revoke unnecessary content authoring privileges to reduce the pool of accounts able to inject stored payloads.
Scan existing form field content for previously injected scripts and remediate any persisted payloads.

Patch Information

Adobe has released a security patch addressing CVE-2025-61797. Administrators should consult Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-98 for the specific patched builds and installation guidance for their AEM deployment.

Workarounds

Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and restricts script sources to trusted origins.
Configure AEM dispatcher rules to filter or reject HTML and script-bearing characters in form field submissions until patching is complete.
Restrict access to AEM authoring interfaces via network segmentation and require multi-factor authentication for all content authors.

bash

# Example Content-Security-Policy header to reduce XSS impact
Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'self'