Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 5 Nov 2025.
Experience Manager FormsApplication · Adobe

CVE-2025-54253

CRITICAL · 10.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.5.23.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges 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 and earlier are affected by a Misconfiguration vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to bypass security mechanisms and execute code. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction and scope is changed.

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 and earlier contain a misconfiguration that allows attackers to bypass security mechanisms and achieve arbitrary code execution without any user interaction. The vulnerability involves improper security settings that enable attackers to inject and execute malicious code on the affected system.

MitigationApply the vendor patch (upgrade to AEM 6.5.24 or later) and conduct a thorough security configuration review of the AEM instance to identify and remediate any other misconfigurations that could be chained with this vulnerability.

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 Manager FormsApplication
Affected:<= 6.5.23.0

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

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. Verify AEM Forms installation
    Access the AEM system and navigate to the Adobe Experience Manager Forms welcome page, or check for the presence of the 'libs/fd/fp' bundle in the OSGi console at /system/console/bundles
    Affected if AEM Forms is not installed, the vulnerability does not apply
  2. Check AEM Forms version
    Navigate to AEM Version/Info page (typically at /system/console/status-productinfo or check the 'Help' > 'About Adobe Experience Manager' in the AEM console) and locate the Forms version number
    Affected if The installed version is 6.5.23.0 or earlier (e.g., 6.5.22.x, 6.5.21.x, etc.)
  3. Identify exposed AEM interfaces
    Review AEM's exposed servlets and endpoints by accessing /system/console/services and checking for publicly accessible Forms-related servlets (particularly those under /fp/ or /forms/ paths)
    Affected if Forms servlets are exposed without proper authentication restrictions or are accessible from untrusted network paths
  4. Check Forms module configuration
    Examine the AEM Forms configuration files in /libs/fd/fp/ and check if the Forms Portal or Document Services components have default or weak permission settings
    Affected if The Forms Portal or related modules have permissive access controls or default configurations that bypass authentication

A user is affected if AEM Forms version 6.5.23.0 or earlier is installed AND the system has exposed interfaces or permissive Forms configurations that could allow security mechanism bypass.

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 6.5.23.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor patch (upgrade to AEM 6.5.24 or later) and conduct a thorough security configuration review of the AEM instance to identify and remediate any other misconfigurations that could be chained with this vulnerability.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Adobe Experience Manager Forms 6.5.24.0 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current Adobe Experience Manager Forms version by checking the product UI or system console.
  2. 2. Review the Adobe Security Bulletin APSB25-15 (or latest corresponding AEM security advisory) for this CVE to confirm the exact fixed version.
  3. 3. Schedule a maintenance window for the upgrade process.
  4. 4. Back up the current AEM instance including the repository, database, and configuration files.
  5. 5. Apply the upgrade to Adobe Experience Manager Forms 6.5.24.0 or later (the first service pack containing the fix).
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version in the AEM system console.
  7. 7. Test critical Forms workflows and submit operations to ensure functionality is intact.
  8. 8. Review AEM security configurations and ensure no custom configurations override the security fixes.
Caveat Standard service pack upgrade risks apply - test in staging first; custom integrations or deprecated APIs may require adjustment

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

Fix this in Experience Manager Forms Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-54253 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