FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla
CVE-2012-5836
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 · uneditedMozilla Firefox before 17.0, Thunderbird before 17.0, and SeaMonkey before 2.14 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via vectors involving the setting of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) properties in conjunction with SVG text.
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 confidenceA memory corruption vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox before 17.0, Thunderbird before 17.0, and SeaMonkey before 2.14 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via specially crafted CSS property settings combined with SVG text elements.
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
< 17.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
= 10.04= 11.10= 12.04= 12.10< 2.14< 17.0= 11.4= 12.1= 12.2= 10= 11= 10= 11= 10= 11CVSS 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 installed Mozilla productRun 'which firefox' or 'which thunderbird' or 'which seamonkey' to determine which Mozilla product is present. On Linux systems, also check package manager: 'dpkg -l | grep -i mozilla' for Debian/Ubuntu or 'rpm -qa | grep -i mozilla' for RHEL/SUSEAffected if Firefox, Thunderbird, or SeaMonkey is installed on the system
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Determine Firefox versionRun 'firefox --version' or 'firefox -v' to retrieve the installed Firefox version numberAffected if Version is less than 17.0 (for example, 16.0.x or earlier)
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Determine Thunderbird versionRun 'thunderbird --version' or 'thunderbird -v' to retrieve the installed Thunderbird version numberAffected if Version is less than 17.0 (for example, 16.0.x or earlier)
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Determine SeaMonkey versionRun 'seamonkey --version' to retrieve the installed SeaMonkey version numberAffected if Version is less than 2.14 (for example, 2.13.x or earlier)
If any installed Mozilla product matches Firefox < 17.0, Thunderbird < 17.0, or SeaMonkey < 2.14, the environment is affected by this CVE.
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 data2.1417.0
Update affected software to Firefox 17.0+, Thunderbird 17.0+, or SeaMonkey 2.14+ to remediate this vulnerability.
Fix this in Firefox
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $1,376.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-5836 — 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 sources- www.mozilla.org
- bugzilla.mozilla.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- secunia.com
- secunia.com
- secunia.com
- secunia.com
- secunia.com
- secunia.com
- www.securityfocus.com
- www.ubuntu.com
- www.ubuntu.com
- www.ubuntu.com
- www.ubuntu.com
- exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com
- oval.cisecurity.org
- osvdb.org
- nvd.nist.gov
Practitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-5836 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data