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SafariWeb browser · Apple

CVE-2007-5859

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2007-12-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Unspecified vulnerability in Safari RSS in Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application termination) or execute arbitrary code via a crafted feed: URL that triggers memory corruption.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Memory corruption vulnerability in Safari's RSS feed parser in Mac OS X 10.4.11 triggered by specially crafted feed: URLs, allowing remote attackers to cause denial of service or execute arbitrary code through heap corruption or similar memory manipulation.

MitigationAvoid clicking on untrusted RSS feed links; upgrade from Mac OS X 10.4.11 as it is end-of-life and no longer receives security patches; disable Safari RSS functionality if upgrade not feasible.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
SafariWeb browser
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Safari is installed
    Locate Safari.app in /Applications folder or check via 'ls /Applications | grep -i safari' command
    Affected if Safari application exists on the system
  2. Determine Safari version number
    Open Safari, go to Safari menu > About Safari, or run 'defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString' in Terminal
    Affected if Any version of Safari is installed (all versions affected per CVE)
  3. Verify RSS feed feature is enabled
    Open Safari Preferences (Cmd+,), navigate to RSS tab or check Bookmarks > Show RSS sidebar; look for RSS icon in toolbar
    Affected if RSS functionality is turned on in Safari preferences
  4. Confirm operating system version
    Click Apple menu > About This Mac, or run 'sw_vers' in Terminal
    Affected if System is running Mac OS X 10.4.11 (the specific version mentioned in CVE context)

User is affected if Safari is installed with RSS feed functionality enabled, particularly on Mac OS X 10.4.11 where the vulnerability was originally documented.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Avoid clicking on untrusted RSS feed links; upgrade from Mac OS X 10.4.11 as it is end-of-life and no longer receives security patches; disable Safari RSS functionality if upgrade not feasible.

Recommended fix High confidence

Safari 3.0.4 for Mac OS X 10.4.11, or Security Update 2007-009

  1. Open Software Update (Apple Menu > Software Update)
  2. Install all available security updates from Apple
  3. Alternatively, download and install Safari 3.0.4 or later from apple.com/downloads
Caveat Mac OS X 10.4.11 reached end-of-life; consider upgrading to a supported OS version (10.5+ or later) for continued security support

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Safari Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
17.0 hours of engineering $3,000
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2007-5859 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data