Vulnerability Note VU#309608

Mozilla products may allow directory traversal

Original Release date: 11 Feb 2008 | Last revised: 11 Feb 2008

Overview

A vulnerability exists in the way Mozilla products with certain extensions handle chrome: URIs that may allow directory traversal.

Description

Mozilla extensions are small add-ons that can be integrated with Mozilla products to provide added functionality. Mozilla products contain a vulnerability in the way chrome: URIs are handled when certain browser extentions are installed. According to the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2008-05:

    the chrome: URI scheme improperly allowed directory traversal that could be used to load JavaScript, images, and stylesheets from local files in known locations. This traversal was possible only when the browser had installed add-ons which used "flat" packaging rather than the more popular .jar packaging, and the attacker would need to target that specific add-on.


Mozilla also reports that this vulnerability can be exploited in Mozilla web browsers to obtain cookie data and information about currently opened webpages from the sessionstore.js file.

Mozilla has released a partial list of "flat" packaged extentions.

Impact

A remote, unauthorized attacker may be able to execute code on a vulnerable system or view browser history information.

Solution

Apply an update
According to the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2008-05 this vulnerability is addressed in Firefox 2.0.0.12, Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (unavailable as of 11-Feb-2008) and SeaMonkey 1.1.8.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
MozillaAffected-11 Feb 2008
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 vulnerability is addressed in Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2008-05. Mozilla credits Gerry Eisenhaur for reporting this issue.

This document was written by Chris Taschner.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2008-0418
  • Date Public: 07 Feb 2008
  • Date First Published: 11 Feb 2008
  • Date Last Updated: 11 Feb 2008
  • Severity Metric: 4.72
  • Document Revision: 7

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