FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla
CVE-2012-0452
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 · uneditedUse-after-free vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox 10.x before 10.0.1, Thunderbird 10.x before 10.0.1, and SeaMonkey 2.7 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via vectors that trigger failure of an nsXBLDocumentInfo::ReadPrototypeBindings function call, related to the cycle collector's access to a hash table containing a stale XBL binding.
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 · high confidenceUse-after-free vulnerability in the nsXBLDocumentInfo::ReadPrototypeBindings function where the cycle collector accesses a hash table containing a stale XBL binding, allowing remote attackers to crash the application or potentially execute arbitrary code via crafted XBL content.
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
FirefoxWeb browser
= 10.0= 10.0= 2.7CVSS 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
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed Mozilla productCheck whether Firefox, Thunderbird, or SeaMonkey is installed by looking at the application name in Add/Remove Programs (Windows), the application bundle (Mac), or the package manager (Linux)Affected if The product is Firefox 10.0, Thunderbird 10.0, or SeaMonkey 2.7 exactly
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Determine the exact installed versionRun 'firefox --version', 'thunderbird --version', or 'seamonkey --version' from the command line, or view the version in the application's About dialogAffected if The version is 10.0 for Firefox or Thunderbird, or 2.7 for SeaMonkey (exact match to affected versions)
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Confirm XBL parsing is enabledIn Firefox/SeaMonkey, check if the config option 'nglayout.debug.enable_xbl_analysis' or similar XBL-related settings are not disabled; verify XBL bindings can be loaded in the browserAffected if XBL parsing is enabled (this is the default state and required for the vulnerability to be triggerable)
You are affected if you have Firefox 10.0, Thunderbird 10.0, or SeaMonkey 2.7 installed with XBL parsing enabled (the default configuration).
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataUpgrade to Firefox 10.0.1, Thunderbird 10.0.1, SeaMonkey 2.7 or later versions to obtain the patched binaries; alternatively disable XBL parsing or restrict JavaScript execution as a defense-in-depth measure.
Fix this in Firefox
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-0452 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-0452 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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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