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Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2024-36165

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-06-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.5.21 / 2024.5 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 6.5.20 and earlier are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by an 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

Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 and earlier allows attackers to inject malicious JavaScript into form fields. When victims browse to pages containing these compromised fields, the malicious script executes in their browsers, potentially enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement.

MitigationUpgrade Adobe Experience Manager to version 6.5.21 or later to obtain the vendor patch. Additionally, implement input validation and output encoding on form fields as a defense-in-depth measure until the upgrade is completed.

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:< 6.5.21< 2024.5

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 installed AEM version
    Access the AEM Web Console (typically at /system/console/configMgr) or check the product.info.json endpoint (at /libs/granite/core/content/productinfo.json) to retrieve the current AEM version number
    Affected if The displayed version is earlier than 6.5.21 or earlier than the 2024.5 release (for cloud/2024 versions)
  2. Locate Adaptive Forms or Custom Form components
    Navigate to the AEM Forms UI at /aem/forms.html or search the CRXDE Lite repository (at /crx/de) under /apps for form-related content fragments, adaptive form configurations, or custom form field components
    Affected if Custom or Adaptive Forms are present in the /apps or /content directories with user-submitted data stored as field values
  3. Inspect form field configurations for unsanitized input
    In CRXDE Lite, examine the XML node structure under /content/forms/af or custom form field nodes in /apps, looking at field value properties for any suspicious script tags, javascript: prefixes, or HTML event handlers (onclick, onerror, etc.)
    Affected if Any form field configuration nodes contain raw script tags, event handlers, or potentially malicious JavaScript in their value or placeholder properties
  4. Review recent form submission activity
    Access the AEM Forms workflow inbox at /aem/inbox or query the Form Data Model service to review recent form submissions for patterns of stored script content in text fields
    Affected if Form submissions contain unescaped HTML or script tags in text input fields

A user is affected if their AEM installation shows a version below 6.5.21 or below 2024.5 AND they have Adaptive Forms or custom form components with user-generated content accessible in the repository.

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 6.5.21 / 2024.5 or later
Fixed in 6.5.212024.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to version 6.5.21 or later to obtain the vendor patch. Additionally, implement input validation and output encoding on form fields as a defense-in-depth measure until the upgrade is completed.

Recommended fix High confidence

AEM 6.5.21 or AEM 2024.5 (whichever release line applies)

  1. Backup your Adobe Experience Manager instance and all content repositories before proceeding
  2. Review the official Adobe Experience Manager upgrade documentation for your current version
  3. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first
  4. Upgrade AEM to version 6.5.21 or later for the 6.5.x release line, or to version 2024.5 or later for the newer release line
  5. After upgrade, verify that the stored XSS vulnerability is resolved by testing form field inputs with typical XSS payloads
  6. Confirm normal AEM functionality is working as expected in the upgraded environment

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
  • Implementation20.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
46.0 hours of engineering $8,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $12,864.

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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-2024-36165 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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