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Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2023-51457

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-12-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2023.11.0 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 versions 6.5.18 and earlier are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by a low-privileged 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 versions 6.5.18 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in form fields. A low-privilege attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form inputs, which persists in the system. When other users view pages containing these compromised fields, the malicious script executes in their browsers, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement.

MitigationUpgrade to Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.19 or later. Additionally, implement input validation and output encoding on all form fields, and configure Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS execution.

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:<= 6.5.18.0< 2023.11.0

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. Check installed Adobe Experience Manager version
    Navigate to the AEM Welcome page or access /system/console/configMgr and look for the version information in the 'Adobe Experience Manager Web Console' or check the crx-quickstart folder for the version.properties file
    Affected if The installed version is 6.5.18.0 or earlier, or the version is between 6.5.0.0 and 6.5.18.0, or the version is below 2023.11.0 (for cloud/2023 releases)
  2. Identify form field usage in the environment
    Review AEM for any Adaptive Forms, Core Components form fields, or custom form implementations by checking the content repository under /content for nodes containing form-related components such as 'core/fd/components/form' or custom form fields
    Affected if The environment uses form components and the AEM version is within the affected range
  3. Inspect stored form data for malicious scripts
    Use CRXDE Lite (accessible at /crx/de) or the Query Builder to search form container nodes under /content for any suspicious script tags, JavaScript event handlers (onclick, onerror, onload), or encoded payloads in form field values
    Affected if Malicious script content is found stored in form field nodes in the repository
  4. Verify Content Security Policy headers
    Check the dispatcher configuration (dispatcher.any or .conf files) and any CSP filter configurations in /system/console/configMgr for 'Content Security Policy' settings
    Affected if CSP is not configured or is set to overly permissive values (like 'unsafe-inline') and the AEM version is affected

The environment is affected if AEM version is 6.5.18.0 or earlier, or below 2023.11.0, AND the system uses form fields where untrusted input could be stored and rendered without proper 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 2023.11.0 or later
Fixed in 2023.11.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.19 or later. Additionally, implement input validation and output encoding on all form fields, and configure Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS execution.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

AEM 6.5.19.0 (on-premise) or AEM Cloud Service 2023.11.0+

  1. 1. Identify the current Adobe Experience Manager version in use by checking the AEM Dashboard or system console
  2. 2. For AEM 6.5.x on-premise customers: Upgrade to AEM 6.5.19.0 or later
  3. 3. For AEM Cloud Service customers: Ensure the environment is on the 2023.11.0 release train or later
  4. 4. After upgrade, verify the XSS filter configurations in AEM Security Checklist are properly enabled
  5. 5. Test form input fields to confirm malicious script execution is blocked
  6. 6. Review AEM audit logs to ensure no exploitation occurred prior to upgrade
Caveat Review Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.19 release notes for potential compatibility changes; test custom code against new version before production deployment

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

Fix this in Experience Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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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-2023-51457 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