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Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2025-46978

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.5.23.0 / 2025.5.0 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 6.5.22 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 confidence

Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.22 and earlier contain a stored Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability where low-privileged users can inject malicious JavaScript into form fields. The malicious script persists in the system and executes when other users view pages containing the affected fields.

MitigationImplement proper input validation and output encoding on all form fields in AEM, particularly in HTL templates and form components. Apply context-aware escaping based on where user input is rendered.

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:< 6.5.23.0< 2025.5.0

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. Check installed AEM version
    Navigate to AEM Welcome page > Tools > Operations > Diagnosis, or access /system/console/product INFO path to view the AEM version number
    Affected if Version is below 6.5.23.0 or below 2025.5.0 (the version shown does not match or exceed the fixed releases)
  2. Identify enabled form components
    Review the AEM component repository at /libs/foundation/components or /apps for forms-related components such as form, textfield, textarea, or custom form containers that accept user input
    Affected if Form components that store user-submitted data are present and accessible to low-privilege authors
  3. Examine form data storage locations
    Query the AEM content repository (CRX/DE) at /content or check the underlying database for form submission nodes under /content/forms and related paths
    Affected if Stored form submissions exist and can be accessed by users with standard author permissions
  4. Review user group permissions on form fields
    Access AEM User Administration at /security or /useradmin to review permissions assigned to groups such as 'content-authors' or 'forms-users' regarding form component creation or modification
    Affected if Low-privilege users (non-admin) have write access to form components or form submission storage locations

Your environment is affected if the installed AEM version is below 6.5.23.0 or below 2025.5.0 AND low-privilege users have access to create or modify form fields where malicious scripts could be injected and stored.

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 6.5.23.0 / 2025.5.0 or later
Fixed in 6.5.23.02025.5.0
Interim mitigation

Implement proper input validation and output encoding on all form fields in AEM, particularly in HTL templates and form components. Apply context-aware escaping based on where user input is rendered.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

AEM 6.5.23.0 or AEM 2025.5.0 (depending on your release track)

  1. 1. Back up the current AEM instance including repository, database, and configurations
  2. 2. Review Adobe's upgrade documentation for your current version to target version
  3. 3. Download Adobe Experience Manager version 6.5.23.0 or version 2025.5.0 from the official Adobe distribution portal
  4. 4. Stop the AEM production instance
  5. 5. Execute the upgrade following Adobe's recommended upgrade procedure
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the AEM version in the About Adobe Experience Manager console
  7. 7. Test critical workflows and forms to ensure functionality is intact
  8. 8. Validate that the XSS vulnerability is remediated by attempting to inject script content in form fields
Caveat AEM major version upgrades may introduce breaking changes; review Adobe's release notes for compatibility with custom code and third-party integrations before upgrading

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

Fix this in Experience Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,980
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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-2025-46978 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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