Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2022-42346

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.5.15.0 / 2022.10.0 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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 version 6.5.14 (and earlier) is affected by a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. If a low-privileged attacker is able to convince a victim to visit a URL referencing a vulnerable page, malicious JavaScript content may be executed within the context of the victim's browser.

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 6.5.14 and earlier contains a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. An unauthenticated, low-privilege attacker must socially engineer a victim into clicking a maliciously crafted URL pointing to a vulnerable AEM page. When clicked, the attacker's JavaScript executes within the victim's browser session, potentially stealing cookies, session tokens, or performing actions on behalf of the user.

MitigationApply the official Adobe security patch for CVE-2022-42346 to AEM instances. Until patched, users should avoid clicking untrusted URLs and organizations should implement URL filtering at the WAF/edge level to detect and block parameter-based XSS attempts.

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:< 6.5.15.0
Experience Manager Cloud ServiceApplication
Affected:< 2022.10.0

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
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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. Identify AEM version
    Access the AEM system information page at /system/console/webbundle or check the crx-quickstart/packageversion.properties file. Alternatively, query the AEM version endpoint if exposed.
    Affected if The installed version is less than 6.5.15.0 for AEM on-premise, or the Cloud Service version is before 2022.10.0
  2. Determine if AEM is network-accessible
    Verify whether the AEM login page or any AEM endpoints are reachable from untrusted networks. Check firewall rules, load balancer configurations, and VPN policies.
    Affected if AEM login or application endpoints are directly exposed to the internet without authentication gating or WAF protection
  3. Check for WAF or URL filtering protection
    Review edge security configurations (WAF, CDN, reverse proxy) for rules that detect and block parameter-based XSS patterns in URL query strings.
    Affected if No WAF or URL filtering is in place to inspect and block suspicious URL parameters before reaching AEM
  4. Audit current URL parameter handling
    Review any accessible AEM pages that accept URL parameters. Test by appending typical XSS payloads (such as <script>alert(1)</script>) to query parameters on known AEM endpoints and observe if the input is reflected unsanitized in the response.
    Affected if URL parameters are reflected in responses without proper encoding or sanitization

A user is affected if their AEM version is below 6.5.15.0 (on-premise) or before 2022.10.0 (Cloud Service), and the application is accessible to potential victims who could be tricked into clicking malicious URLs.

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 6.5.15.0 / 2022.10.0 or later
Fixed in 6.5.15.02022.10.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the official Adobe security patch for CVE-2022-42346 to AEM instances. Until patched, users should avoid clicking untrusted URLs and organizations should implement URL filtering at the WAF/edge level to detect and block parameter-based XSS attempts.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.15.0 (or later) for on-premise; 2022.10.0 (or later) for Cloud Service

  1. 1. Create a full backup of the current AEM instance including repository, configuration, and any custom code
  2. 2. Review the Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.15.0 release notes for any known issues, prerequisites, or migration requirements
  3. 3. Download AEM 6.5.15.0 (or later) from the Adobe Software Distribution portal
  4. 4. For on-premise installations: Stop the AEM instance, apply the upgrade following Adobe's upgrade documentation, then restart
  5. 5. For Cloud Service: Ensure the upgrade is pushed through the Cloud Manager pipeline per Adobe's Cloud Service deployment process
  6. 6. After upgrade, verify that the /system/console/bundles console is accessible and all bundles are in active state
  7. 7. Validate critical workflows and authored content to ensure functionality is intact
  8. 8. Confirm the XSS vulnerability is remediated by testing that the reflected URL parameters are properly sanitized

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
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,260
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,816.

Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2022-42346 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