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Experience ManagerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2025-54246

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-09-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2025.8.0 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 6.5.23.0 and earlier are affected by an Incorrect Authorization vulnerability that could result in a Security feature bypass. A low-privileged attacker could leverage this vulnerability to bypass security measures and gain unauthorized write access.

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

Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23.0 and earlier contain an Incorrect Authorization vulnerability (CWE-863) that allows low-privileged attackers to bypass security measures and gain unauthorized write access to the system. This is a security feature bypass in the AEM permission model.

MitigationApply the vendor security patch from Adobe to update AEM to a version beyond 6.5.23.0, and verify that low-privilege users can no longer gain write access to unauthorized resources.

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<= 2025.8.0= 6.5

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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
    Log in to AEM as admin and navigate to Help > System Information, or check the version manifest file in the AEM installation directory. Alternatively, query the /system/console/configMgr/com.day.cq.commons.impl.VersionInfoImpl endpoint.
    Affected if The version number is 6.5.23.0 or earlier, or falls within the 6.5.x family, or is 2025.8.0 or earlier.
  2. Verify AEM 6.5 family version
    Confirm the specific 6.5.x subversion by examining the product version displayed in the AEM Welcome screen or via the system information console.
    Affected if The version is exactly 6.5 (without a higher subversion number) or any 6.5.x version below 6.5.23.0.
  3. Check for 2024/2025 release versions
    If running a cloud-hosted or newer AEM release, identify the quarterly release version number from the AEM system console or version properties.
    Affected if The version is 2025.8.0 or any earlier 2024.x/2025.x quarterly release.
  4. Audit low-privilege user group permissions
    Navigate to User Administration in AEM (Tools > Security > Users or Groups) and examine ACLs (Access Control Lists) assigned to groups with limited privileges. Look for any entries that grant write or modify permissions beyond their intended scope.
    Affected if Low-privilege groups have unexpectedly broad write permissions to system paths or content trees they should not access.
  5. Review permission model configuration
    Access the CRX Explorer (or CRXDE Lite) and inspect the /home or /libs paths for Access Control entries. Compare the configured permissions against the expected least-privilege model for standard users.
    Affected if Standard or low-privilege users have ACL entries allowing write operations on protected content structures.

You are affected if your AEM installation version is 6.5.23.0 or earlier, any 6.5.x version, 2025.8.0 or earlier, or if low-privilege users have unauthorized write permissions in your permission model.

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 a release after 2025.8.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor security patch from Adobe to update AEM to a version beyond 6.5.23.0, and verify that low-privilege users can no longer gain write access to unauthorized resources.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Upgrade to Adobe Experience Manager 6.5.24.0 or later (or the latest 2025.x release beyond 2025.8.0)

  1. 1. Identify the current Adobe Experience Manager version installed in your environment
  2. 2. Navigate to the Adobe Experience Manager security bulletins page (helpx.adobe.com) for the most current patch information
  3. 3. Download and apply the latest Adobe Experience Manager security patch that addresses CVE-2025-54246
  4. 4. After applying the patch, verify the installation and test that the authorization controls are functioning correctly
  5. 5. Confirm that low-privileged users can no longer gain unauthorized write access
Caveat Review Adobe's release notes for any compatibility changes or deprecations in the target version before upgrading

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

Fix this in Experience Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,760
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,616.

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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-2025-54246 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