Vulnerability Note VU#592425

Mozilla-based products fail to validate user input to the attribute name in "XULDocument.persist"

Original Release date: 03 Feb 2006 | Last revised: 08 Feb 2006

Overview

A vulnerability in some Mozilla products that could allow a remote attacker to execute Javascript commands with the permissions of the user running the affected application.

Description

According to the Mozilla advisory on this issue:

    XULDocument.persist() did not validate the attribute name, allowing an attacker to inject XML into localstore.rdf that would be read and acted upon at startup. This could include JavaScript commands that would be run with the permissions of the browser.

    Note: Thunderbird could be vulnerable if JavaScript is enabled. This is not the default setting and we strongly discourage users from turning on JavaScript in mail. Thunderbird is not vulnerable in its default configuration.


This vulnerability affects Mozilla Firefox, SeaMonkey, Thunderbird, and potentially any other Mozilla-based application. The exploit code for this vulnerability could be remotely supplied through a web page or in an email message.

Impact

A remote attacker may be able to inject XML code, including JavaScript commands, into a startup file on the victim's system. This file would then be read and executed the next time the affected application is started.

Solution

Upgrade

Mozilla has released Firefox version 1.5.0.1 that contains a fix for this issue. The SeaMonkey project has released version 1.0 that contains a fix for this issue. Users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to these fixed versions of the software.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Fedora ProjectAffected-03 Feb 2006
Mandriva, Inc.Affected-08 Feb 2006
Red Hat, Inc.Affected-08 Feb 2006
Mozilla, Inc.Unknown07 Feb 200607 Feb 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 Corporation for reporting this vulnerability. Mozilla, in turn, credits moz_bug_r_a4 with reporting this issue to them.

This document was written by Chad R Dougherty.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2006-0296
  • Date Public: 02 Feb 2006
  • Date First Published: 03 Feb 2006
  • Date Last Updated: 08 Feb 2006
  • Severity Metric: 17.10
  • Document Revision: 16

Feedback

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