Firefox/Thunderbird Sandbox Escape and Potential RCE
Actively exploited in the wild. Patch or mitigate immediately — don't wait for a maintenance window.
An unauthenticated attacker, remotely over the network, with no user interaction, can fully compromise the system — steal data, tamper with it and take it offline.
Insufficient vetting of parameters passed with the Prompt:Open IPC message between child and parent processes can result in the non-sandboxed parent process opening web content chosen by a compromised child process. When combined with additional vulnerabilities this could result in executing arbitrary code on the user's computer. This vulnerability affects Firefox ESR < 60.7.2, Firefox < 67.0.4, and Thunderbird < 60.7.2.
Inferred from the weakness type (CWE) and how the flaw is reached — the techniques an attacker would chain to exploit this. Real-world corroboration appears here as threat intel is folded in.
Corroborated threat activity referencing this CVE — with source and confidence, not inference.
Named threat actors and observed ATT&CK techniques appear here as intel feeds are folded in — the ATT&CK chain above stays inferred until then.
Generated by Wavense from the CVE record — an immediate mitigation and the permanent fix.
Implement strong endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for suspicious process activity and unexpected network connections from browser applications. Restrict browser access to untrusted or known malicious websites through web proxies or firewalls. Educate users about social engineering and avoiding untrusted links to minimize initial child process compromise.
The permanent fix requires updating affected applications to patched versions. Users should upgrade Firefox ESR to 60.7.2 or higher, Firefox to 67.0.4 or higher, and Thunderbird to 60.7.2 or higher. These updates address the insufficient parameter vetting, preventing the sandbox escape.
An attacker, having compromised a child process (e.g., through another vulnerability), can force the non-sandboxed parent process to open arbitrary web content. This allows bypassing the browser's security sandbox, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution and full system compromise, data theft, or further network penetration.
Other CVEs affecting firefox
An attacker was able to achieve code execution in the content process by exploiting a use-after-free in Animation timelines. We have had reports of this vulnerability being exploited in the wild. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 131.0.2, Firefox ESR < 128.3.1, Firefox ESR < 115.16.1, Thunderbird < 131.0.1, Thunderbird < 128.3.1, and Thunderbird < 115.16.0.
Mozilla Firefox 3.5.x through 3.5.14 and 3.6.x through 3.6.11, Thunderbird 3.1.6 before 3.1.6 and 3.0.x before 3.0.10, and SeaMonkey 2.x before 2.0.10, when JavaScript is enabled, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors related to nsCSSFrameConstructor::ContentAppended, the appendChild method, incorrect index tracking, and the creation of multiple frames, which triggers memory corruption, as exploited in the wild in October 2010 by the Belmoo malware.
An unexpected message in the WebGPU IPC framework could lead to a use-after-free and exploitable sandbox escape. We have had reports of attacks in the wild abusing this flaw. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 97.0.2, Firefox ESR < 91.6.1, Firefox for Android < 97.3.0, Thunderbird < 91.6.2, and Focus < 97.3.0.
Heap buffer overflow in vp8 encoding in libvpx in Google Chrome prior to 117.0.5938.132 and libvpx 1.13.1 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)
Heap buffer overflow in libwebp in Google Chrome prior to 116.0.5845.187 and libwebp 1.3.2 allowed a remote attacker to perform an out of bounds memory write via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Critical)
Removing an XSLT parameter during processing could have lead to an exploitable use-after-free. We have had reports of attacks in the wild abusing this flaw. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 97.0.2, Firefox ESR < 91.6.1, Firefox for Android < 97.3.0, Thunderbird < 91.6.2, and Focus < 97.3.0.
Incorrect alias information in IonMonkey JIT compiler for setting array elements could lead to a type confusion. We are aware of targeted attacks in the wild abusing this flaw. This vulnerability affects Firefox ESR < 68.4.1, Thunderbird < 68.4.1, and Firefox < 72.0.1.
A type confusion vulnerability can occur when manipulating JavaScript objects due to issues in Array.pop. This can allow for an exploitable crash. We are aware of targeted attacks in the wild abusing this flaw. This vulnerability affects Firefox ESR < 60.7.1, Firefox < 67.0.3, and Thunderbird < 60.7.2.