Vulnerability Note VU#441529

Mozilla Firefox JavaScript engine fails to properly handle garbage collection

Overview

Mozilla Firefox JavaScript engine fails to properly handle garbage collection. This vulnerability result in memory corruption, which in some cases may be exploitable to execute arbitrary code.

I. Description

Per Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2008-20:

Fixes for security problems in the JavaScript engine described in MFSA 2008-15 (CVE-2008-1237) introduced a stability problem, where some users experienced crashes during JavaScript garbage collection. This is being fixed primarily to address stability concerns. We have no demonstration that this particular crash is exploitable but are issuing this advisory because some crashes of this type have been shown to be exploitable in the past.

II. Impact

A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to cause a vulnerable version of the Firefox browser to crash.

III. Solution

Upgrade

Users are encouraged to update to Firefox 2.0.0.14, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, or SeaMonkey 1.1.10.

Use NoScript
Using the Mozilla Firefox NoScript extension to whitelist web sites that can run scripts and access installed plugins will mitigate this vulnerability. See the NoScript FAQ for more information.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Mozilla	Vulnerable	18-Apr-2008

References

http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2008/mfsa2008-20.html
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-1380
http://noscript.net/faq

Credit

This document was written by Ryan Giobbi.

Other Information

Date Public:	2008-04-16
Date First Published:	2008-04-18
Date Last Updated:	2008-04-18
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CVE-2008-1380
NVD-ID(s):	CVE-2008-1380
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	0.00
Document Revision:	4

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Produced 2008 by US-CERT, a government organization
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