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CVE-2018-18505: Mozilla Firefox: Improper Authentication

CVE-2018-18505 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 10.0 and affects Mozilla Firefox, along with 8 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

An earlier fix for an Inter-process Communication (IPC) vulnerability, CVE-2011-3079, added authentication to communication between IPC endpoints and server parents during IPC process creation. This authentication is insufficient for channels created after the IPC process is started, leading to the authentication not being correctly applied to later channels. This could allow for a sandbox escape through IPC channels due to lack of message validation in the listener process. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.5, Firefox ESR < 60.5, and Firefox < 65.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 10.0: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Changed. Impact reaches beyond the vulnerable component to other resources.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-287: Improper Authentication

When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.

Affected products

  • Mozilla Firefox: before 60.5.0; before 65.0
  • Mozilla Thunderbird: before 60.5.0
  • Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 14.04; 16.04; 18.04; 18.10
  • Debian Linux: 8.0; 9.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 6.0; 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server: 6.0; 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Aus: 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Eus: 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Tus: 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 6.0; 7.0

References