Vulnerability Note VU#495288

Mozilla products contain several unspecified errors in the layout engine

Original Release date: 08 Nov 2006 | Last revised: 05 Apr 2007

Overview

The Mozilla layout engine contains several unspecified vulnerabilities that may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or crash the vulnerable application.

Description

The Mozilla layout engine, also known as Gecko, is responsible for parsing HTML, XML, CSS, layout, and rendering. Gecko is the core of several applications, such as Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey. The Mozilla layout engine contains several unspecified vulnerabilities that can corrupt memory and cause the application to crash. In certain cases, such crashes may be exploitable to execute arbitrary code.

Impact

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page, an HTML email message, or an HTML email attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. An attacker may also be able to cause the affected application to crash.

Solution

Apply an update

Refer to Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-65 for fixed versions of Mozilla products. According to this advisory, Firefox 1.5.0.8, Thunderbird 1.5.0.8, and SeaMonkey 1.0.5 address this issue. Netscape Browser 8.1.3 has also been released to address this issue.


Disable JavaScript

Disabling JavaScript may help prevent these vulnerabilities from being exploited to execute arbitrary code.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
America Online, Inc.Affected-05 Apr 2007
MozillaAffected08 Nov 200608 Nov 2006
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

Thanks to the Mozilla Foundation for reporting this vulnerability, who in turn credit Jesse Ruderman and Martijn Wargers.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2006-5464
  • Date Public: 08 Nov 2006
  • Date First Published: 08 Nov 2006
  • Date Last Updated: 05 Apr 2007
  • Severity Metric: 3.50
  • Document Revision: 21

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