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FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2009-3980

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2009-12-17
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities in the browser engine in Mozilla Firefox 3.5.x before 3.5.6, SeaMonkey before 2.0.1, and Thunderbird allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via unknown vectors.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-399

A legacy NVD category grouping weaknesses in how resources — memory, file handles, connections — are allocated, used, and released. It gathers leaks, exhaustion, and lifecycle bugs under one label rather than naming a single flaw. The fix depends on the specific resource issue, generally pairing acquisition with release and bounding what any request can consume.

General guidance for the resource management errors class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
FirefoxWeb browser
Affected:= 3.5.1= 3.5.2= 3.5.3= 3.5.4= 3.5.5
SeamonkeyApplication
Affected:<= 2.0= 1.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.0.3= 1.0.4= 1.0.5= 1.0.6= 1.0.7= 1.0.8= 1.0.9= 1.0.99
ThunderbirdApplication
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

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.0
Vendor patch www.mozilla.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox: upgrade to 3.5.6 or later (ideally 3.6+); SeaMonkey: upgrade to 2.0.1 or later; Thunderbird: upgrade to 3.0 or later

  1. 1. Identify the installed Mozilla product (Firefox, SeaMonkey, or Thunderbird) and verify the current version matches an affected version
  2. 2. Back up essential user data including bookmarks, passwords, and email (for Thunderbird) to a secure location
  3. 3. Download the fixed version from the official Mozilla repository: Firefox 3.5.6 or later (recommended: Firefox 3.6 or newer), SeaMonkey 2.0.1 or later, or Thunderbird 3.0 or later
  4. 4. Close all instances of the affected application
  5. 5. Install the updated version using standard installation procedures
  6. 6. Restart the application and verify successful installation
  7. 7. Confirm the vulnerability is resolved by checking the updated version number
Caveat Upgrading from 2009-era Firefox/SeaMonkey/Thunderbird to modern versions involves significant UI changes, removed features, and potential extension incompatibility; however, the critical severity vulnerability justifies the upgrade

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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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-2009-3980 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
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