Firefox WebGPU IPC Use-After-Free Sandbox Escape
Actively exploited in the wild. Patch or mitigate immediately — don't wait for a maintenance window.
An unauthenticated attacker, remotely over the network, if a user is tricked into opening a malicious file or link, can fully compromise the system — steal data, tamper with it and take it offline.
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.
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.
While a direct pre-patch mitigation for a browser exploit is challenging, organizations should enforce strict network egress filtering to prevent unexpected outbound connections from compromised systems. Deploy advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for anomalous process execution originating from browser processes. Additionally, implement user awareness training to advise extreme caution when visiting untrusted or suspicious websites.
The permanent resolution is to upgrade affected Mozilla products to the patched versions. Users should update Firefox to version 97.0.2 or later, Firefox ESR to 91.6.1 or later, Firefox for Android to 97.3.0 or later, Thunderbird to 91.6.2 or later, and Focus to 97.3.0 or later. Applying these updates will address the underlying use-after-free vulnerability and prevent exploitation.
An attacker can exploit this use-after-free vulnerability in the WebGPU IPC framework to achieve a sandbox escape. This allows arbitrary code execution on the underlying operating system, potentially leading to full system compromise. Given reports of in-the-wild attacks, this poses a critical risk of data theft, further network intrusion, and loss of system integrity.
Other CVEs affecting firefox
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.
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.
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.