CVE-2023-29302
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 · uneditedAdobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.16.0 (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 · moderate confidenceAdobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.16.0 and earlier contain a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. An unauthenticated, low-privilege attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into a URL parameter. When a victim clicks the crafted link, the payload reflects off the vulnerable server and executes within the victim's browser session.
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< 6.5.17.0< 2023.4CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed AEM versionAccess the AEM System Information console at /system/console/status-productinfo or check the version.properties file in the crx-quickstart directory. For AEM Cloud Service, verify the version through the Cloud Manager environment details.Affected if The version is earlier than 6.5.17.0 for on-premise installations, or earlier than the 2023.4 release for AEM Cloud Service.
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Verify if the vulnerable URL parameter endpoint is accessibleIdentify commonly targeted AEM endpoints such as /login, /libs/granite/core/content/login, or any resource path that accepts URL parameters. Attempt a simple test parameter (for example, ?test=1) to see if the value reflects in the response without encoding.Affected if User-supplied URL parameters reflect directly in the HTML response without proper encoding or sanitization.
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Inspect HTTP response headers for Content Security PolicyUse browser developer tools, curl, or a similar tool to capture the HTTP response headers from the AEM login page or other public-facing endpoints. Look for a Content-Security-Policy header.Affected if No CSP header is present, or the CSP policy is overly permissive and does not include directives like 'unsafe-inline' restrictions that would mitigate reflected XSS.
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Review input validation configurations in AEMCheck the OSGi configuration for the Adobe Granite HTML Sanitizer Service (com.adobe.granite.xss) or custom validation filters. Examine if there are any custom sling filters or request wrappers that perform input validation on URL parameters.Affected if No input validation or sanitization is configured for URL parameters, or the existing sanitizer rules allow script injection patterns.
You are affected if your AEM version is below 6.5.17.0 (on-premise) or below 2023.4 (Cloud Service) AND the vulnerable endpoint reflects URL parameters without encoding AND there are no compensating controls like CSP headers or input validation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped6.5.17.02023.4
Upgrade to Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.17.0 or later to obtain the patch. As a compensating control, implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers and validate/sanitize all user-supplied input in URL parameters.
AEM 6.5.17.0 or later; AEM Cloud Service 2023.4 or later
- Back up your current AEM instance and content repositories before upgrading
- Review the Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.17 release notes at helpx.adobe.com for any known issues or breaking changes
- Test the upgrade in a non-production/staging environment first to ensure compatibility with your custom code and configurations
- Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 to version 6.5.17.0 or later (for Cloud Service, upgrade to version 2023.4 or later)
- After upgrade, verify the XSS vulnerability is remediated by testing that malicious scripts are no longer executed via reflected URLs
- Deploy the upgraded version to production after successful validation
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-29302 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-29302 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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