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Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2024-36173

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 · moderate confidence

Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in form fields. Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form inputs, which persists on the server and executes in victims' browsers when they view the affected pages.

MitigationApply AEM 6.5.21 or later patch; implement input validation and output encoding for form fields; configure Content Security Policy 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:< 6.5.21< 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. Determine your AEM version
    Navigate to the AEM Welcome page or access the system/console/info page (typically at /system/console/info) to view the installed AEM product version
    Affected if Version is below 6.5.21 or below 2024.5 (for cloud/2024 releases)
  2. Identify custom form components in use
    Review the AEM Forms implementation or check the /apps folder for custom form components that collect user input, particularly those extending core form field components
    Affected if Custom or extended form components exist that handle user-submitted data
  3. Inspect form field input handling
    Examine the HTL/Sightly templates or JSP scripts for form input fields (found under /apps or /libs) to determine whether output encoding is applied to user-supplied values when rendered
    Affected if Form field templates render user input without applying encoding functions such as encodingForHTML or equivalent sanitization
  4. Check form data storage for suspicious content
    Query the JCR (Java Content Repository) or form data stores for unusual script tags or JavaScript syntax in form submission fields, using tools like CRXDE Lite or AEM Query Builder
    Affected if Stored form submissions contain unescaped HTML script tags or javascript: URIs in input fields

You are affected if your AEM version is below 6.5.21 (or below 2024.5 for newer releases) AND your forms render user-submitted input without proper output 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 6.5.21 / 2024.5 or later
Fixed in 6.5.212024.5
Interim mitigation

Apply AEM 6.5.21 or later patch; implement input validation and output encoding for form fields; configure Content Security Policy headers to mitigate XSS execution.

Recommended fix High confidence

AEM 6.5.21+ or AEM 2024.6+ (depending on release train)

  1. 1. Identify which Adobe Experience Manager release train you are using (6.5.x or 2024.x)
  2. 2. If using AEM 6.5.x release train, schedule upgrade to version 6.5.21 or later
  3. 3. If using AEM 2024.x release train, schedule upgrade to version 2024.6 or later
  4. 4. Before production deployment, test the upgraded version in a staging environment to verify compatibility with custom code and integrations
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify that the XSS vulnerability is resolved by testing the previously vulnerable form fields
Caveat Review AEM 6.5.21 release notes for any breaking changes or deprecated features that may affect custom implementations

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
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,980
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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-2024-36173 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