CVE-2023-51461
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 6.5.18 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 confidenceAdobe 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 payloads that persist in the system and execute when other users view pages containing the affected form fields.
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<= 6.5.18.0< 2023.11.0CVSS 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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Check Adobe Experience Manager installed versionNavigate to the AEM Welcome page or access /system/console/configMgr and locate the version information. Alternatively, check the crx-quickstart/package.properties file for the product.version property.Affected if The installed version is 6.5.18.0 or earlier, or any version prior to 2023.11.0 (such as 2023.10.x, 2023.9.x, etc.)
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Identify form components accepting user inputReview the AEM instance for pages containing Adaptive Forms, Core Form components, or custom form fields. Use the Query Builder API to search for nodes of type 'nt:unstructured' with form-related resource types under /content or /apps.Affected if The AEM instance hosts form components that accept and store user-submitted data in JCR nodes without server-side output encoding.
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Inspect stored form data for suspicious payloadsQuery the JCR repository using the Query Builder or CRXDE Lite to examine stored values in form-related nodes. Look for patterns like '<script', 'javascript:', 'onerror=', 'onload=' or other HTML event handlers within form field content nodes.Affected if Form field nodes contain unencoded HTML tags, script elements, or event handler attributes that could execute JavaScript when rendered.
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Verify output encoding on form-rendering componentsExamine the HTL (HTML Template Language) or JSP templates responsible for rendering form field values. Check if the context-sensitive encoding functions (such as ${formData @ context='html'} or encoding utilities) are applied to user-supplied data before output.Affected if Form templates render user input without applying proper HTML context-aware encoding, allowing script execution.
The environment is affected if the AEM version is 6.5.18.0 or earlier (or below 2023.11.0) AND the system uses form components that store and display user input without server-side output encoding, allowing stored XSS payloads to persist and execute.
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 · scoped2023.11.0
Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to version 6.5.19 or later. Until the patch is applied, implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers and ensure proper output encoding is applied to all user-supplied data in form fields.
AEM 6.5.19.0+ or AEM 2023.11.0+
- 1. Identify the currently installed Adobe Experience Manager version by checking the product about page or system console.
- 2. For AEM 6.5.x installations on versions 6.5.18.0 or earlier: Schedule downtime and upgrade to AEM 6.5.19.0 or later.
- 3. For AEM as a Cloud Service or 2023.x installations: Upgrade to version 2023.11.0 or later.
- 4. After upgrading, verify the XSS fix by testing form fields that previously allowed script injection.
- 5. Clear browser caches and test that legitimate form submissions still function correctly.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-51461 — 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-2023-51461 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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