CVE-2025-46959
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 DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. A low privileged attacker could exploit this issue by manipulating the DOM environment to execute malicious JavaScript within the context of the victim's browser. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must visit a specially crafted web page.
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 DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability where malicious JavaScript can be executed within a victim's browser context through manipulation of the DOM environment. This differs from reflected/stored XSS as the payload never reaches the server—it exploits insecure client-side JavaScript that reads and uses data from DOM elements without proper sanitization.
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< 2025.5CVSS 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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Identify AEM versionAccess the AEM Welcome page or check the com.adobe.version AEM bundle in the OSGi web console (/system/console/bundles) to determine the installed versionAffected if Installed version is earlier than 6.5.23.0 or earlier than the 2025.5 release train
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Verify DOM-manipulating components are in useInspect custom client-side JavaScript files in /apps or /libs that read data from DOM elements (such as document.location, document.referrer, or inline HTML reading methods) and use that data in JavaScript execution contexts without encodingAffected if Custom or extended client-side code reads DOM elements and directly inserts that data into JavaScript eval(), innerHTML, or document.write() without sanitization
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Check Content Security Policy deploymentReview the dispatcher configuration or AEM HTML Library Manager settings for Content-Security-Policy headers, or inspect HTTP responses from the AEM publish instance using browser developer toolsAffected if CSP headers are not configured or are set to unsafe values (such as 'unsafe-inline' or 'unsafe-eval') that would allow XSS execution to succeed
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Review vulnerable DOM API usageSearch JavaScript libraries under /etc/clientlibs or /apps for unsafe patterns such as .innerHTML=, .outerHTML=, document.write(), or eval() used with unsanitized DOM-derived dataAffected if The codebase contains any of these unsafe patterns combined with data sourced from DOM elements without encoding
You are affected if running AEM versions 6.5.22 or earlier (or pre-2025.5) AND your instance uses client-side JavaScript that manipulates the DOM with data not sanitized via output encoding, and CSP headers are not effectively deployed to block script execution.
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
Implement proper output encoding when reading from DOM elements and using the data in JavaScript; utilize safe DOM APIs that automatically encode input; deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS execution; upgrade to AEM 6.5.23 or later when available.
AEM 6.5.23.0 (or later) / AEM as a Cloud Service 2025.5 (or later)
- 1. Verify current Adobe Experience Manager version by accessing /crx/packmgr/version.jsp or checking the AEM Diagnostics console
- 2. For AEM 6.5.x versions: Plan upgrade to version 6.5.23.0 or later
- 3. For AEM as a Cloud Service: Plan upgrade to version 2025.5 or later
- 4. Schedule maintenance window and notify users of planned downtime
- 5. Perform full backup of AEM repository (CRX) and database before upgrade
- 6. Execute upgrade following Adobe's official upgrade guide for your deployment type
- 7. After upgrade, validate that the AEM login and admin consoles are accessible
- 8. Test critical user workflows to ensure functionality post-upgrade
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-46959 — 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-2025-46959 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
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