Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is under continuous threat with new vulnerabilities emerging at an alarming rate. One such recently discovered vulnerability, CVE-2025-54254, has been found to affect Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23 and earlier. This vulnerability is an Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (‘XXE’) type, which could lead to arbitrary file system read. This means an attacker could exploit the vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to sensitive files on the local file system. The importance of this issue cannot be overstated, as the potential damage could lead to system compromise or data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-54254
Severity: Critical (CVSS 8.6)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Adobe Experience Manager | 6.5.23 and earlier versions
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability is an XXE (XML External Entity) type, which arises when an application processing XML input does not correctly restrict the use of external entities. This can lead to disclosure of confidential data, denial of service, server side request forgery, port scanning from the perspective of the machine where the parser is located, and other system impacts.
In the case of CVE-2025-54254, the flaw lies in how Adobe Experience Manager processes XML data, allowing an attacker to inject malicious XML that can read arbitrary files from the system.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This can be done via a maliciously crafted POST request to a vulnerable endpoint.
POST /vulnerable/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE foo [
<!ELEMENT foo ANY >
<!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "file:///etc/passwd" >]>
<foo>&xxe;</foo>In the above example, the XML payload includes a reference to an external entity, `xxe`, which is defined as the local file `/etc/passwd`. When processed by the vulnerable application, this file’s contents are included in the response, leading to information disclosure.
Please note that the above is a proof of concept and should only be used for educational or defensive measures. Misuse of this information can result in criminal charges.
Mitigation
Adobe has released a patch to address this vulnerability. It is highly recommended to update your Adobe Experience Manager to the latest version as soon as possible. As an interim measure, you can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to block or monitor for attempts to exploit this vulnerability.