CVE-2025-54254

High

Published: 05 August 2025

Published

05 August 2025

Modified

02 October 2025

KEV Added

—

Patch

—

CVSS Score 8.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS Score 0.0026 49.3th percentile

Risk Priority 17 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-54254 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (CWE-611) vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager Forms. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 49.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly remediates the XXE vulnerability by identifying, reporting, and applying vendor patches as specified in Adobe's APSB25-82 bulletin.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Implements input validation at XML processing points to restrict external entity references, preventing arbitrary file system reads.

CM-6 Configuration Settings good match

prevent

Establishes and enforces secure configuration settings for XML parsers in Adobe Experience Manager to disable external entity processing.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1005 Data from Local System Collection

Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

XXE in public-facing AEM directly enables remote unauthenticated exploitation (T1190) and arbitrary local file reads (T1005).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23 and earlier are affected by an Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference ('XXE') vulnerability that could lead to arbitrary file system read. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to access sensitive files on the…

local file system, scope is changed. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-54254 is an Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE) vulnerability, classified as CWE-611, affecting Adobe Experience Manager versions 6.5.23 and earlier. This issue enables arbitrary file system reads, allowing attackers to access sensitive files on the local file system.

With a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.6 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N), the vulnerability is exploitable remotely over the network with low complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction, and features a changed scope that results in high confidentiality impact. Unauthenticated attackers can leverage this to read sensitive local files without any user involvement.

Adobe's security bulletin APSB25-82, published at https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/aem-forms/apsb25-82.html, details mitigation steps and available patches for affected versions.