# CVE-2023-22271: AEM Weak Cryptography for Passwords Security feature bypass

> A low-privileged attacker can decrypt user passwords due to weak cryptography, requiring possession of the encrypted secret.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 22 Mar 2023
- **Updated:** 5 Mar 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-pfv4-g52j-f26m

## What is CVE-2023-22271?

CVE-2023-22271 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager, published on 22 Mar 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Experience Manager versions 6.5.15.0 (and earlier) are affected by a Weak Cryptography for Passwords vulnerability that can lead to a security feature bypass. A low-privileged attacker can exploit this in order to decrypt a user's password. The attack complexity is high since a successful exploitation requires to already have in possession this encrypted secret.

Weakness: CWE-326 (Inadequate Encryption Strength), CWE-261 (Weak Encoding for Password)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22271?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Experience Manager Cloud Service.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22271?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22271 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22271 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22271 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Adobe Experience Manager

- [CVE-2026-90532](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90532/): Adobe Experience Manager | Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2026-105895](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-105895/): Adobe Experience Manager | Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2026-19232](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19232/): Adobe Experience Manager | Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2025-49533](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49533/): Adobe Experience Manager (MS) | Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-40722](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40722/): AEM Forms Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-22271 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22271 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager, published on 22 Mar 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22271 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Adobe Experience Manager. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22271/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22271/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22271
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22271
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22271

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22271/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.