dbcve.org
FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2012-5842

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-11-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.14 / 10.0.11 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 before 17.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.0.11, Thunderbird before 17.0, Thunderbird ESR 10.x before 10.0.11, and SeaMonkey before 2.14 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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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:< 10.0.11< 17.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.04= 11.10= 12.04= 12.10
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.3
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
SeamonkeyApplication
Affected:< 2.14

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 2.14 / 10.0.11 / 17.0 or later
Fixed in 2.1410.0.1117.0
Vendor patch bugzilla.mozilla.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox 10.0.11 (ESR 10.x branch) or Firefox 17.0+ (mainline); SeaMonkey 2.14+

  1. Back up all personal data, bookmarks, and passwords from the current browser installation
  2. Close all running instances of Firefox, Thunderbird, or SeaMonkey
  3. For Ubuntu/Debian systems: Run 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade' to install the latest security updates from your distribution's repositories
  4. Alternatively, download and install Firefox 10.0.11 (for ESR 10.x users) or Firefox 17.0+ (for mainline users) from the official Mozilla website: https://www.mozilla.org/
  5. For SeaMonkey users: Download and install SeaMonkey 2.14 or later from the official Mozilla website: https://www.seamonkey-project.org/
  6. Restart the browser and verify the version by navigating to 'about:support' (Firefox/SeaMonkey) or 'Help > About Thunderbird' to confirm the update was applied
  7. Clear browser cache and verify that affected plugins/extensions are compatible with the new version
Caveat Some older plugins or extensions may not be compatible with Firefox 17.0+; verify add-on compatibility before upgrading

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-5842 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2012-5842 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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