CVE-2025-54253: 
Adobe Experience Manager vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms versions 6.5.23 and earlier are affected by a critical misconfiguration vulnerability (CVE-2025-54253) that could result in arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability was discovered by Shubham Shah and Adam Kues from Searchlight Cyber and was disclosed to Adobe in April 2025. This vulnerability specifically affects standalone deployments of AEM Forms on J2EE-compatible servers (Bleeping Computer, Help Net Security).

The vulnerability (CVE-2025-54253) is caused by an authentication bypass in the /adminui module combined with a misconfigured Struts2 development mode setting that was left enabled. This configuration error allows attackers to execute OGNL expressions through debug parameters in HTTP requests without requiring authentication. The vulnerability has received a Critical severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) (NVD, Searchlight Research).

The vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable servers without requiring authentication or user interaction. This could lead to complete system compromise, as attackers can bypass security mechanisms and execute malicious commands on the affected system (NVD, Bleeping Computer).

Adobe has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Organizations are strongly advised to update to the latest version immediately. If immediate patching is not possible, it is recommended to restrict access to Adobe Experience Manager Forms from the external internet when deployed as a standalone application (Bleeping Computer, Searchlight Research).