Description

Adobe Experience Manager is affected by an Incorrect Authorization vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user, potentially gaining elevated access or control over the victim's account or session. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction. Scope is changed.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "10.0",
  "pubDate": "2026-10-13T20:17:28.900Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-10-13T20:17:28.900Z",
  "executiveSummary": "Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is susceptible to an Incorrect Authorization vulnerability, which poses a critical security risk by allowing unauthorized entities to perform actions typically restricted to privileged users.\nThis vulnerability is classified as an improper authorization flaw, where the system fails to adequately validate the permissions of a user request before executing it.\nThe successful exploitation of this flaw can result in arbitrary code execution within the security context of the current user session.\nImpact includes the potential for escalated privileges, unauthorized account control, and significant compromise of the AEM instance.\nA key characteristic of this vulnerability is that it does not require user interaction, meaning a remote attacker can potentially trigger the exploit without social engineering or victim participation.\nThe scope of the impact is designated as changed, indicating that the vulnerability affects resources beyond the security scope of the initially exploited component.\nGiven the ability to execute arbitrary code, this vulnerability represents a severe risk to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the AEM environment.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of this vulnerability lies in an Incorrect Authorization implementation within Adobe Experience Manager. This occurs when the application fails to verify if an authenticated or unauthenticated user has the requisite permissions to access sensitive endpoints or execute specific system functions. Because the access control mechanism is inadequately enforced, the application processes requests that should be rejected by the security layer.\nThe vulnerability is characterized by a failure in the authorization logic, likely involving insufficient checks on incoming HTTP requests or service invocations. When the AEM server receives a malicious request targeting an affected component, it incorrectly grants the requestor the authority to perform operations that lead to code execution. Since the impact includes arbitrary code execution, the flaw likely stems from the improper handling of server-side objects or functions reachable through exposed interfaces that lack strict input or privilege validation.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: 1) The attacker identifies an exposed endpoint or component within the AEM architecture that processes user-controlled input without sufficient authorization validation. 2) The attacker crafts a request payload designed to trigger the vulnerable function. 3) The AEM application, failing to confirm the attacker's authorization level, processes the request and executes the payload. 4) The payload runs in the context of the current user session, which, depending on the service account, may grant the attacker elevated access or complete administrative control over the AEM instance. Because this is a scope-changed vulnerability, the impact extends beyond the immediate component to the broader system configuration or connected backend services.\nThe absence of a requirement for user interaction suggests that the vulnerable component is reachable directly via network-accessible services. This increases the attack surface significantly, as any automated process or remote attacker with reach to the AEM instance can initiate the exploit. Upon successful execution, the attacker can leverage the compromised session to extract sensitive data, modify content, or establish persistent backdoors within the AEM environment. The severity is heightened by the potential for remote code execution, which facilitates a complete compromise of the underlying application server."
}