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Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2021-43765

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-01-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.5.10.0 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
AEM's Cloud Service offering, as well as version 6.5.10.0 (and below) are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by an attacker to inject malicious scripts into vulnerable form fields. Malicious JavaScript may be executed in a victim’s browser when they browse to the page containing the vulnerable field.

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 · high confidence

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Cloud Service and versions 6.5.10.0 and below contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields, which executes when users browse to pages containing those fields.

MitigationUpgrade AEM to a patched version (Cloud Service or version 6.5.11.0+) and implement input validation/sanitization on all form fields to prevent script injection.

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:<= 6.5.10.0
Experience Manager Cloud ServiceApplication
Affected:all versions

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

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. Determine your AEM version
    Access the AEM system information page at /system/console/status-productinfo or check the crx/packmgr for the core-compat-version file. In AEM as a Cloud Service, check the Cloud Manager environment details.
    Affected if The version is 6.5.10.0 or lower (for AEM on-premise) or if running AEM Cloud Service (any version).
  2. Identify form components in use
    Review your content pages and templates to locate all Coral UI form components ( CoralForm, form field components) or custom form implementations. Check /apps and /libs for form-related components.
    Affected if Your implementation uses form components for user input collection.
  3. Audit input validation on form fields
    Inspect the form field component configurations (XML or dialog .xml files) in /apps for the presence of validation rules. Check whether the granite:dataType is set toString and if any server-side validation or sling:osgiconfig is applied.
    Affected if Form fields lack server-side input validation and sanitization configurations.
  4. Review stored form data for malicious scripts
    Query the JCR repository (using CRXDE Lite query tool or Jackrabbit Oak queries) for form field content nodes under /content that contain script tags, javascript:, or on* event handlers in the stored values.
    Affected if The repository contains form submissions with unsanitized script content.
  5. Inspect rendered HTML output
    Use the browser developer tools to view the page source of forms. Examine form input value attributes and label elements to verify if user-submitted content is properly HTML-encoded/escaped.
    Affected if Form field values render as raw unescaped content or contain executable script tags in the HTML output.

You are affected if running AEM Cloud Service of any version or AEM 6.5.10.0 and below, and your forms accept user input without proper input validation and output encoding.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 6.5.10.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade AEM to a patched version (Cloud Service or version 6.5.11.0+) and implement input validation/sanitization on all form fields to prevent script injection.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

AEM 6.5.11.0 or later (latest 6.5.x release) | AEM Cloud Service (Adobe-managed patch)

  1. 1. Identify the current AEM version in use by checking the Help > About Adobe Experience Manager option in the AEM console
  2. 2. If running AEM 6.5.10.0 or below, plan an upgrade to AEM 6.5.11.0 or later (recommended: latest 6.5.x release)
  3. 3. For AEM Cloud Service, verify with Adobe that the environment has received the security update (patches are automatically applied by Adobe)
  4. 4. After upgrading, verify the fix by testing form fields that previously accepted user input for XSS payload persistence
  5. 5. Review and test any custom form components or workflows that handle user-submitted content
Caveat Standard AEM upgrade considerations apply - review custom code, third-party integrations, and deprecated APIs before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Experience Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,980
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,968.

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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-2021-43765 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