Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is constantly shifting with new vulnerabilities being discovered and patched regularly. One such critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-53693, has been identified in Sitecore’s Experience Manager (XM) and Experience Platform (XP). This vulnerability is rated with a CVSS Severity Score of 9.8, denoting its critical nature.
This vulnerability arises from the use of externally-controlled input to select classes or code, otherwise known as ‘Unsafe Reflection’. It affects Sitecore XM and XP and allows for potential system compromise or data leakage through cache poisoning. Given the widespread use of Sitecore’s platforms, the vulnerability presents a significant risk to organizations and needs urgent attention.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-53693
Severity: Critical (9.8/10)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Sitecore Experience Manager (XM) | 9.0 through 9.3, 10.0 through 10.4
Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) | 9.0 through 9.3, 10.0 through 10.4
How the Exploit Works
The exploit takes advantage of the ‘Unsafe Reflection’ vulnerability in Sitecore XM and XP platforms. An attacker can send externally-controlled input to select classes or code that manipulates the cache data. This could potentially lead to cache poisoning, where the attacker injects malicious content into the cache, causing harmful data to be served to users.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited:
POST /vulnerable/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"class": "malicious_class",
"method": "poison_cache",
"data": "malicious_data"
}In this example, the attacker specifies a malicious class and method in the JSON body of the POST request, along with the data they wish to inject into the cache. This leads to the cache poisoning, and any subsequent requests could potentially retrieve the malicious data.
Recommended Mitigation
Given the severity of this vulnerability, it is strongly recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. As a temporary mitigation, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. These tools can monitor and analyze traffic for signs of an attack, providing an extra layer of security while the patch is being applied.
