CVE-2024-49523
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 6.5.20 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 confidenceAdobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.20 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in form fields. Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript payloads that persist on the server and execute in victim browsers when they view pages containing the compromised 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< 6.5.21.0< 2024.5.0CVSS 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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Determine installed AEM versionAccess the AEM Welcome page (/aem/start.html) or navigate to Help > About Adobe Experience Manager. Alternatively, check the version.properties file in the crx-quickstart folder or query the system console at /system/console/configMgr for the AEM Version information.Affected if The installed version is 6.5.x prior to 6.5.21.0, or any version prior to 2024.5.0.
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Identify custom form components in the systemReview the AEM Forms implementation by navigating to /libs/fd/fm across the repository or check the Forms > Edit page in the AEM author instance to list any custom form models or adaptive form components that have been created.Affected if Custom or modified form fields exist in the AEM Forms implementation, as these may lack the vendor-supplied input validation.
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Inspect form field content for injected scriptsQuery the AEM JCR repository using CRXDE Lite (accessible at /crx/de) or the Query tool to search for form field data containing script tags. Run an XPATH or SQL2 query searching for nodes containing '<script' patterns within form-related content nodes under /content or /etc.Affected if Any form field entries in the repository contain malicious script payloads such as <script> tags, javascript: URIs, or event handler attributes.
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Verify output encoding on rendered form pagesAccess the AEM author or publish instance and view a page containing form fields. Use the browser developer tools (F12) to inspect the HTML source of rendered form fields and verify whether user-supplied values are properly encoded (e.g., < renders as <).Affected if Form field values render as raw, unencoded HTML in the page source, indicating the XSS vulnerability is exploitable.
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Check Content Security Policy header configurationInspect the HTTP response headers on published AEM pages by using browser devtools Network tab or a command-line tool like curl -I against the publish instance URL. Look for Content-Security-Policy header and evaluate its restrictions on script sources.Affected if No CSP header is present, or the CSP allows inline scripts (unsafe-inline), which would permit stored XSS payloads to execute.
You are affected if your AEM version is below 6.5.21.0 or below 2024.5.0 AND custom form fields exist that accept user input without proper output encoding.
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 · scoped6.5.21.02024.5.0
Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to version 6.5.21 or later to obtain the security patch. As a temporary measure, implement input validation and output encoding on affected form fields, and deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS execution.
Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.21.0 or 2024.5.0 (depending on your version branch)
- 1. Back up your current Adobe Experience Manager instance including repository, database, and configuration files
- 2. Review Adobe's official upgrade documentation for your current version at helpx.adobe.com
- 3. Download the fixed version: 6.5.21.0 (for 6.5.x line) or 2024.5.0 (for earlier versions) from Adobe's distribution portal
- 4. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first to verify compatibility with custom code and integrations
- 5. Execute the upgrade following Adobe's documented upgrade procedures
- 6. After upgrade, verify that the XSS vulnerability is resolved by testing the previously vulnerable form fields
- 7. Deploy the upgraded instance to production
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing20.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-49523 — 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-2024-49523 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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