Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2019-7964

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-08-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5, and 6.4 have an authentication bypass vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to remote code execution.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.4 and 6.5 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms. Successful exploitation enables remote code execution on the affected AEM instances.

MitigationApply the official Adobe security patch for CVE-2019-7964 to affected AEM 6.4 and 6.5 instances. If patching is not immediately possible, restrict network access to AEM publish and author instances as a temporary compensating control.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Experience ManagerApplication
Affected:= 6.4= 6.5

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Adobe Experience Manager is installed
    Check for AEM installation directories such as /opt/aem, /app/aem, or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Experience Manager, or look for the presence of crx-quickstart folder in common locations
    Affected if AEM is found on the system
  2. Identify installed AEM version
    Check the version.properties file located in crx-quickstart/conf or access the AEM Web Console (/system/console/systeminfo) and view the Adobe Experience Manager version information
    Affected if The version displays as exactly 6.4 or exactly 6.5
  3. Verify AEM is exposed to network
    Check if AEM publish or author instances are accessible from external networks by reviewing firewall rules, load balancer configurations, or network ACLs allowing inbound access to ports 4502 (publish) or 4503 (author) from untrusted sources
    Affected if AEM instances are reachable from the internet or untrusted networks on publish/author ports
  4. Confirm authentication mechanism is enabled
    Review AEM authentication configuration in the Apache Felix JAAS Configuration or Adobe Granite Authentication Handler settings accessible via /system/console/configMgr
    Affected if Default AEM form-based or token-based authentication handlers are active

If AEM 6.4 or 6.5 is installed and exposed to network access, the environment is likely affected by this authentication bypass vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the official Adobe security patch for CVE-2019-7964 to affected AEM 6.4 and 6.5 instances. If patching is not immediately possible, restrict network access to AEM publish and author instances as a temporary compensating control.

Fix this in Experience Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,720
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-7964 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-7964 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data