INFORMATION BULLETIN

R-094: Mozilla Products Crash with Evidence of Memory Corruption

[Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-68]

December 21, 2006 17:00 GMT
[REVISED 8 Feb 2007]
[REVISED 5 Mar 2007]
[REVISED 14 Mar 2007]
[REVISED 23 Mar 2007]
[REVISED 6 Jul 2007]


PROBLEM:	There are crashed that showed evidence of memory corruption and some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code with enough effort.
PLATFORM:	Firefox 2 and 1.5 Thunderbird 1.5 SeaMonkey 1 Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (sarge) Firefox prior to version 1.5.0.9 running on HP-UX B.11.11 and B.11.23 Solaris 8, 9, 10 Operating System
DAMAGE:	Could have memory corruption and run arbitrary code with enough effort.
SOLUTION:	Upgrade to the appropriate version.

VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT:	The risk is MEDIUM. There are crashed that showed evidence of memory corruption and some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code with enough effort.

LINKS:
CIAC BULLETIN:	http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/r-094.shtml
ORIGINAL BULLETIN:	http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2006/mfsa2006-68.html
ADDITIONAL LINKS:	Debian Security Advisory DSA-1258-1
	http://www.debian.org/security/2007/dsa-1258
	Debian Security Advisory DSA-1265-1
	http://www.debian.org/security/2007/dsa-1265
	Visit Hewlett-Packard's Subscription Service for:
	HPSBUX02153 SSRT061181 rev. 3
	Sun Alert ID: 102846
	http://www.sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102846-1
	Sun Alert ID: 102955
	http://www.sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102955-1
CVE:	CVE-2006-6497 CVE-2006-6498 CVE-2006-6499

REVISION HISTORY:
02/08/2007 - revised to add a link to Debian Security Advisory DSA-1258-1
             for Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (sarge).
03/05/2007 - revised R-094 to add a link to Hewlett-Packard HPSBUX02153 SSRT061181
             rev. 3 for Firefox prior to version 1.5.0.9 running on HP-UX B.11.11 
		     and B.11.23.
03/14/2007 - revised R-094 to add a link to Debian Security Advisory DSA-1265-1
             for Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 sarge.
03/23/2007 - revised R-094 to add a link to Sun Alert ID: 102846 for Solaris 8, 
             9, 10 Operating System.			 			 
07/06/2007 - revised R-094 to add a link to Sun Alert ID: 102955 for Solaris 8, 
             9, 10 Operating System.			 			 
			 




[***** Start Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-68 *****]

Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-68

Title: Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.0.9/1.8.1.1)
Impact: Critical
Announced: December 19, 2006
Reporter: Mozilla Developers
Products: Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey

Fixed in: Firefox 2.0.0.1
Firefox 1.5.0.9
Thunderbird 1.5.0.9
SeaMonkey 1.0.7

Description

As part of the Firefox 2.0.0.1 and 1.5.0.9 update releases we fixed several bugs to improve the stability of the product. Some of these were crashes that showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code with enough effort.

Note: Thunderbird shares the browser engine with Firefox and could be vulnerable if JavaScript were to be enabled in mail. This is not the default setting and we strongly discourage users from running JavaScript in mail. Without further investigation we cannot rule out the possibility that for some of these an attacker might be able to prepare memory for exploitation through some means other than JavaScript, such as large images.

Workaround

Upgrade to the fixed versions. Do not enable JavaScript in Thunderbird or the mail portions of SeaMonkey.

References

Keith Victor reported that if the floating point precision of the CPU was reduced (which can happen on windows by loading a plugin which creates a Direct3D device) then it is possible that js_dtoa() will not exit and instead overwrite memory. None of the most common plugins in use do this which lowers the overall impact of this vulnerability to moderate.
CVE-2006-6499
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=358569




[***** End Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-68 *****]

CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Mozilla for the information contained in this bulletin.

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