Vulnerability Note VU#263412

Mozilla products vulnerable to privilege escalation via a JavaScript watch() function

Original Release date: 18 Jan 2007 | Last revised: 02 Feb 2007

Overview

A vulnerability exists in Mozilla products that may allow a remote attacker to gain elevated privileges.

Description

Mozilla products contain a vulnerability in the way the JavaScript watch() function is handled that may result in privilege escalation. According to the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-70:

    Shutdown demonstrated that it was possible to use a JavaScript watch() to gain elevated privilege.

Impact

A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to gain elevated privileges.

Solution

Apply an update
According to the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-70, this vulnerability is addressed in Firefox 2.0.0.1, Firefox 1.5.0.9, Thunderbird 1.5.0.9, and SeaMonkey 1.0.7.

Disable JavaScript


For instructions on how to disable JavaScript in Firefox, please refer to the Firefox section of the Securing Your Web Browser document.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Fedora ProjectAffected-18 Jan 2007
Gentoo LinuxAffected-18 Jan 2007
Mandriva, Inc.Affected-18 Jan 2007
MozillaAffected-21 Dec 2006
Red Hat, Inc.Affected-18 Jan 2007
rPathAffected-18 Jan 2007
Slackware Linux Inc.Affected-18 Jan 2007
SUSE LinuxAffected-18 Jan 2007
UbuntuAffected-18 Jan 2007
If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

Group Score Vector
Base N/A N/A
Temporal N/A N/A
Environmental N/A N/A

References

Credit

This issue was reported in Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-70. Mozilla credits shutdown with providing information about this issue.

This document was written by Chris Taschner.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2006-6501
  • Date Public: 19 Dec 2006
  • Date First Published: 18 Jan 2007
  • Date Last Updated: 02 Feb 2007
  • Severity Metric: 24.30
  • Document Revision: 21

Feedback

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