CVE-2025-64537: Adobe Experience Manager XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-64537 Overview

Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23 and earlier are affected by a DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could lead to arbitrary code execution. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by injecting malicious scripts into a web page that are executed in the context of the victim's browser. A successful attacker can abuse this to achieve session takeover, increasing the confidentiality and integrity impact as high. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must visit a crafted malicious page.

Critical Impact

This DOM-based XSS vulnerability enables attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser context, potentially leading to complete session takeover and unauthorized access to sensitive Adobe Experience Manager content and administrative functions.

Affected Products

• Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23 and earlier
• Adobe Experience Manager AEM Cloud Service
• Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 LTS

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-12-10 - CVE CVE-2025-64537 published to NVD
• 2025-12-12 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-64537

Vulnerability Analysis

This DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager (CWE-79) allows attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute within the victim's browser session. Unlike reflected or stored XSS, DOM-based XSS occurs entirely on the client side, where the vulnerability exists in the JavaScript code that dynamically modifies the page DOM using untrusted data sources.

The vulnerability enables complete session takeover by allowing attackers to steal session cookies, authentication tokens, and other sensitive information processed by the browser. Once an attacker gains access to a victim's session, they can perform any action the authenticated user is authorized to perform within the Adobe Experience Manager platform, including content manipulation, user management, and system configuration changes.

Root Cause

The vulnerability stems from improper handling of user-controllable input within the client-side JavaScript code of Adobe Experience Manager. When the application processes data from sources such as URL parameters, document location, or other DOM properties without proper sanitization, malicious scripts can be injected and executed in the context of the vulnerable page.

DOM-based XSS typically occurs when JavaScript takes data from an attacker-controllable source (such as document.location, document.referrer, or URL fragments) and passes it to a dangerous sink (such as innerHTML, document.write(), or eval()) without adequate validation or encoding.

Attack Vector

The attack requires user interaction where a victim must be enticed to visit a specially crafted malicious URL or web page. The attacker constructs a URL containing malicious JavaScript payload that, when processed by the vulnerable Adobe Experience Manager application, executes in the victim's browser.

The network-based attack vector means attackers can target any user with network access to the vulnerable Adobe Experience Manager instance. The changed scope indicates that the vulnerability can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component itself, potentially impacting the confidentiality and integrity of the broader web application ecosystem.

The exploitation flow typically involves social engineering techniques to convince users to click on malicious links, such as phishing emails or malicious advertisements that redirect to the crafted URL targeting the vulnerable AEM instance.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-64537

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual URL patterns containing encoded JavaScript payloads targeting Adobe Experience Manager endpoints
• Browser console errors indicating attempted script execution from unexpected sources
• Web server logs showing requests with suspicious query parameters containing <script> tags or JavaScript event handlers
• User reports of unexpected behavior or unauthorized actions performed in their AEM sessions

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common XSS payload patterns in incoming requests
• Enable Content Security Policy (CSP) headers and monitor for policy violation reports indicating attempted script injection
• Deploy browser-based security monitoring to detect unauthorized DOM manipulation or script execution
• Review Adobe Experience Manager access logs for patterns indicating session hijacking or credential theft

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure security information and event management (SIEM) systems to alert on XSS-related patterns in web application logs
• Monitor for anomalous user behavior patterns that may indicate compromised sessions, such as unusual access times or geographic locations
• Implement real-time alerting for CSP violation reports from client browsers

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-64537

Immediate Actions Required

• Apply the latest Adobe Experience Manager security patches as outlined in Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-115
• Implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict script execution sources
• Review and restrict user access to Adobe Experience Manager administrative functions until patches are applied
• Educate users about the risks of clicking on untrusted links, especially those containing AEM URLs

Patch Information

Adobe has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Organizations should immediately review and apply the patches documented in Adobe Security Advisory APSB25-115. For Adobe Experience Manager 6.5, upgrade to version 6.5.24 or later. Organizations using AEM Cloud Service should verify that automatic updates have been applied.

Workarounds

• Deploy Web Application Firewall rules to filter incoming requests containing known XSS payload signatures
• Implement strict Content Security Policy headers with script-src 'self' to prevent inline script execution
• Restrict network access to Adobe Experience Manager instances using firewall rules and VPN requirements
• Consider temporarily disabling affected functionality if critical patches cannot be applied immediately

# Example Content Security Policy header configuration for Apache
Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; img-src 'self' data:; frame-ancestors 'self';"