CVE-2025-46854
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 confidenceAdobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in form fields. A low-privileged attacker can inject malicious JavaScript that persists in the system and executes in victims' 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< 6.5.23.0< 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.
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Determine your Adobe Experience Manager versionAccess the AEM Welcome page (/aem/start.html) and locate the version information typically displayed in the footer, or check the version.properties file in the crx-quickstart folderAffected if The version shown is 6.5.22 or earlier, or any version prior to 2025.5.0 (the 2024.x and early 2025 releases before the 2025.5.0 patch)
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Identify custom form field components in useReview your AEM instance for custom form components created using the Adaptive Forms framework or custom form fields built with HTL/Sightly templates in /appsAffected if Custom or extended form field components exist that may not have output encoding applied to user-supplied values
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Check form submission configuration for low-privileged accessReview your form content fragments or adaptive form submissions in the CRX/DE repository under /content/forms and verify which user groups have permission to create or edit form definitionsAffected if Low-privileged users (such as content-authors or users without full admin rights) can create or modify form fields where XSS payloads could be injected
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Inspect stored form data for suspicious contentQuery the repository using CRXDE Lite or a tool like the AEM Query Builder to search form submission nodes under /content/forms/fp for script tags, javascript: URIs, or event handler attributesAffected if Any stored form data contains unsanitized HTML or script tags that would execute when rendered in a form
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Verify output encoding on form field renderingExamine the JSP/HTL templates for your form field components and check whether context-sensitive output encoding (such as HTL's encoding utilities or org.apache.sling.xss.XSSAPI) is applied to user-submitted values before renderingAffected if Form field templates render user input without applying XSS protection such as HTML encoding before display
You are affected if your AEM version is 6.5.22 or earlier, or below 2025.5.0, AND your forms accept input from low-privileged users or render stored form data without 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 · scoped6.5.23.02025.5.0
Upgrade Adobe Experience Manager to a version newer than 6.5.22. Until patched, implement output encoding and input validation on form fields as a compensating control.
AEM 6.5.23.0 or later; AEM Cloud 2025.5.0 or later
- Verify current Adobe Experience Manager version by accessing /system/console/bundles or checking the About Adobe Experience Manager page
- Plan and schedule the upgrade during a maintenance window
- Back up the AEM repository (Oak repository), configuration files, and any custom code
- For AEM 6.5.x: Upgrade to version 6.5.23.0 or later
- For AEM Cloud: Upgrade to version 2025.5.0 or later
- After upgrade, verify the XSS fix is applied by testing form field inputs with malicious script payloads
- Confirm normal AEM functionality and authored content renders correctly
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-46854 — 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-2025-46854 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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- 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
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