FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2013-0781

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-02-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.16 / 17.0.3 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
Use-after-free vulnerability in the nsPrintEngine::CommonPrint function in Mozilla Firefox before 19.0, Thunderbird before 17.0.3, and SeaMonkey before 2.16 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (heap memory corruption) via unspecified 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-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free 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:< 17.0.3< 19.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.04= 11.10= 12.04= 12.10
SeamonkeyApplication
Affected:< 2.16
ThunderbirdApplication
Affected:< 17.0.3
Thunderbird EsrApplication
Affected:< 17.0.3
OpensuseOperating system
Affected:= 11.4= 12.1= 12.2

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 2.16 / 17.0.3 / 19.0 or later
Fixed in 2.1617.0.319.0
Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox 19.0+ | Thunderbird 17.0.3+ | Thunderbird ESR 17.0.3+ | SeaMonkey 2.16+

  1. For Firefox users: Upgrade to Firefox 19.0 or later (or minimum 17.0.3 for stable branch)
  2. For Thunderbird users: Upgrade to Thunderbird 17.0.3 or later
  3. For Thunderbird ESR users: Upgrade to Thunderbird ESR 17.0.3 or later
  4. For SeaMonkey users: Upgrade to SeaMonkey 2.16 or later
  5. For Ubuntu Linux (10.04, 11.10, 12.04, 12.10): Apply system updates via 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade' to receive Mozilla security patches
  6. For openSUSE (11.4, 12.1, 12.2): Apply system updates via 'sudo zypper patch' to receive Mozilla security patches
  7. Restart the browser/application after updating
Caveat Users on older systems (e.g., Ubuntu 10.04) may need to use extended support channels or manual Mozilla package installation; some legacy add-ons may be incompatible with newer versions

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 $3,200. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-0781 — 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

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-0781 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