Adobe Experience Manager: Improper input validation allows code execution
Summary
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) contains an improper input validation flaw (CWE-20). According to the official CVE record, an attacker with high privileges can execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user, without user interaction, and the scope changes. A third-party source describes the same ID as a DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting issue that requires user interaction, so the exact nature of the flaw is not yet confirmed.
Affected
- AEM as a Cloud Service: versions 0 to 2026.9.28187
- AEM 6.5 LTS: versions up to and including 6.5 LTS SP3
- AEM 6.5: versions up to and including 6.5.25
Fixed in
- AEM as a Cloud Service: 2026.9.28386
- AEM 6.5 LTS: Hotfix GRANITE-71379 for SP1, SP2 and SP3
- AEM 6.5: Hotfix GRANITE-71379 for 6.5.23, 6.5.24 and 6.5.25
Workaround
Unknown.
Exploitation
- Adobe rates the bulletin APSB26-152 as priority 2.
- CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation none, not automatable, total technical impact.
- Tenable and ZDI report no known exploitation.
- No CISA KEV entry or public proof of concept was found for this CVE.
Our recommendation
- Identify whether you run AEM Cloud Service or on-premises 6.5 / 6.5 LTS, and the exact build.
- Cloud Service: confirm the tenant runs 2026.9.28386 or later.
- On-premises: apply hotfix GRANITE-71379 for your version line, after confirming the mapping in Adobe's advisory.
- Restrict access to author and admin interfaces and review privileged accounts, since exploitation requires high privileges.
- Recheck CISA KEV and the Adobe advisory in the coming weeks, given the conflicting descriptions.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Adobe Security Bulletin APSB26-152 helpx.adobe.com
- Adobe Trust page APSB26-152 www.adobe.com
- CVE record mirror (Vulners) vulners.com
- Tenable plugin for APSB26-152 www.tenable.com
- HKCERT security bulletin October 2026 www.hkcert.org
- Zero Day Initiative October 2026 review www.zerodayinitiative.com
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 31 Oct 2026, 06:43.
Original description (NVD)
Adobe Experience Manager is affected by an Improper Input Validation vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. An attacker with high privileges could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction. Scope is changed.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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