CVE-2025-46851
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 6.5.22 and earlier are affected by a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that could be abused by a low privileged 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 confidenceStored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier allows low-privileged attackers to inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields. When victims browse to pages containing these compromised fields, the malicious script executes in their browsers.
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< 6.5.23.0< 2025.5.0CVSS 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.
-
Determine installed AEM versionAccess the AEM Welcome page and navigate to Tools > Operations > Web Console, or append /system/console/bundles to your AEM URL, or check the version from the crx-quickstart folder in the file systemAffected if The version shown is below 6.5.23.0 or below 2025.5.0
-
Confirm AEM release typeCheck whether your instance is on the 6.5.x long-term support (LTS) release or on the 2025.x quarterly release by viewing the version string in the About Adobe Experience Manager page (Help > About)Affected if Running 6.5.x LTS versions 6.5.22 or earlier, or any 2025.x version prior to 2025.5.0
-
Identify Forms module usageNavigate to Forms in the AEM authoring console or check for the presence of adaptive form templates and form data models under /content/forms in the repositoryAffected if Forms or Adaptive Forms are enabled and in use, as the XSS vulnerability resides in form field inputs
-
Verify low-privilege user access to FormsReview user group permissions in AEM by accessing Tools > Security > Permissions console and confirm whether contributors or other low-privilege groups have create or edit permissions on form content pathsAffected if Low-privileged users (contributors, content authors without admin rights) can create or edit form fields, allowing them to inject malicious scripts
You are affected if your AEM version is 6.5.22 or earlier on the 6.5.x LTS track, or any version below 2025.5.0 on the quarterly release track, and Forms functionality is enabled with low-privileged user access.
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 · scoped6.5.23.02025.5.0
Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to version 6.5.23 or later to obtain the security patch. Alternatively, implement input validation and output encoding on affected form fields as a compensating control until upgrade can be performed.
AEM 6.5.23.0 or later, or AEM 2025.5.0 or later
- 1. Back up the AEM instance and verify backup integrity before proceeding
- 2. Schedule a maintenance window for the upgrade
- 3. Download Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.23.0 (for 6.5.x line) or version 2025.5.0 (for cloud/2025 line) from the official Adobe Software Distribution portal
- 4. Follow Adobe's official upgrade documentation for your specific version path
- 5. Test the upgraded instance in a staging environment before production deployment
- 6. Deploy the fixed version to production
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,888.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-46851 — 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-2025-46851 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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.
- 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