CVE-2023-51463
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 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 confidenceAdobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.18 and earlier contain a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability where user-supplied input in URL parameters is rendered back to the victim's browser without proper output encoding, allowing execution of arbitrary JavaScript in the context of the victim's 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<= 6.5.18all versionsCVSS 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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Locate the installed AEM versionAccess the Adobe Experience Manager Felix Web Console at /system/console/status-Bundles or check the version.properties file in the crx-quickstart folder. The version is typically displayed on the Welcome page under 'Version Information' or via the 'Product Information' section in the admin console.Affected if The installed AEM version cannot be determined or is not visible in the expected locations (may indicate a non-standard installation).
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Compare installed version to affected rangeReview the detected version number (for example, 6.5.18, 6.5.17, 6.5.0) and compare it against the affected range: any version of AEM 6.5.x at 6.5.18 or earlier, or any other AEM version line at its corresponding version number that maps to 6.5.18 or below.Affected if The installed version is 6.5.18 or lower, or the AEM version line (such as 6.4.x, 6.3.x) is at or below its equivalent of the 6.5.18 security patch level.
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Identify reflected XSS exposureReview the application logs and examine URL parameter handling for any custom components or third-party integrations that process user input and return it in HTTP responses. Test suspected endpoints by injecting a benign script tag (for example, <script>alert(1)</script>) in URL parameters and observing whether the value is reflected unchanged in the response body.Affected if User-supplied URL parameters are echoed back in HTTP responses without encoding, confirming the reflected XSS condition exists in the environment.
The environment is affected if the installed Adobe Experience Manager version is 6.5.18 or earlier (or the equivalent patch level in other version branches), since this vulnerability is present in all versions up to and including 6.5.18.
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 · scopedApply Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.19 or later which contains the security fix for this reflected XSS vulnerability. Until patched, users should avoid clicking untrusted URLs linking to AEM pages.
AEM 6.5.19 or later
- Navigate to the Adobe Software Distribution portal at https://experience.adobe.com/downloads
- Locate Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.19 or later in the releases section
- Download the service pack for your operating system
- Stop the AEM instance before applying the update
- Install the service pack by running the quickstart installer or using the package manager
- Restart the AEM instance after installation completes
- Verify the version number reflects 6.5.19 or later in the About Adobe Experience Manager console
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-51463 — 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-2023-51463 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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