Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2024-53969

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.5.22.0 / 2024.11.0 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 6.5.21 and earlier are affected by a DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be exploited to execute arbitrary code in the context of the victim's browser session. By manipulating the DOM environment in the victim's browser, a low privileged attacker can inject malicious scripts that are executed by the victim's browser. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction, typically in the form of following a malicious link.

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

DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.21 and earlier allows low-privileged attackers to inject malicious scripts into the DOM environment. When victims click malicious links, these scripts execute in their browser context, potentially leading to session compromise. The attack requires user interaction but needs no elevated privileges.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Experience Manager to a version newer than 6.5.21 or apply the vendor-provided security patch. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers as a defense-in-depth measure to mitigate XSS attacks.

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:< 6.5.22.0< 2024.11.0

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 Adobe Experience Manager version
    Access the AEM About page at /libs/cq/core/content/info.html or check thefelix console at /system/console/bundles to view the AEM version manifest
    Affected if The displayed version is below 6.5.22.0 or below 2024.11.0
  2. Verify AEM product version via CRXDE Lite
    Access /crx/de/index.jsp and check the version.properties file or query the version node in the JCR repository under /etc/version
    Affected if The reported AEM version falls within the affected range (< 6.5.22.0 or < 2024.11.0)
  3. Check for installed security patches
    Review the list of installed hotfixes in the Package Manager at /crx/packmgr/list.jsp or check /system/console/status-ProductInfo to see applied patches
    Affected if No security patches for CVE-2024-53969 are installed and the base version is in the affected range

Your AEM instance is affected if its base version is earlier than 6.5.22.0 or earlier than 2024.11.0 and no corresponding security hotfix has been applied.

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 6.5.22.0 / 2024.11.0 or later
Fixed in 6.5.22.02024.11.0
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Experience Manager to a version newer than 6.5.21 or apply the vendor-provided security patch. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers as a defense-in-depth measure to mitigate XSS attacks.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.22.0 or later, or 2024.11.0 or later (Cloud Service)

  1. Review the Adobe Experience Manager release notes for version 6.5.22.0 (for 6.5.x customers) or 2024.11.0 (for Cloud Service customers) to understand changes and known issues
  2. Create a complete backup of your current AEM instance including content repository, configurations, and custom code
  3. Test the upgrade in a non-production/staging environment before deploying to production
  4. Schedule a maintenance window following Adobe's recommended upgrade best practices
  5. Perform the upgrade to 6.5.22.0 or later (on-prem) or 2024.11.0 or later (Cloud Service) following Adobe's official upgrade documentation
  6. After upgrade, verify the instance is functioning correctly and all custom workflows are operational
  7. Confirm the DOM-based XSS vulnerability is resolved by testing with the malicious payload pattern described in the CVE
Caveat Review Adobe's release notes for 6.5.22.0/2024.11.0 for any compatibility or deprecation notices that may affect custom components

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Experience Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-53969 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-53969 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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