FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla
CVE-2013-1700
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 · uneditedThe Mozilla Maintenance Service in Mozilla Firefox before 22.0 on Windows does not properly handle inability to launch the Mozilla Updater executable file, which allows local users to gain privileges via vectors involving placement of a Trojan horse executable file at an arbitrary location.
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 confidenceThe Mozilla Maintenance Service in Firefox versions before 22.0 on Windows has a local privilege escalation vulnerability. The service fails to properly handle cases where the Mozilla Updater executable cannot be found, allowing an attacker to place a malicious executable at an arbitrary location that the service will then execute with elevated privileges.
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
<= 21.0= 19.0= 19.0.1= 19.0.2= 20.0= 20.0.1CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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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Confirm Windows operating systemCheck if the system is running Windows (this vulnerability only affects Windows systems). Open Command Prompt and run 'systeminfo | findstr /C:"OS Name"' or check System Properties.Affected if The system is running Windows. This CVE only affects the Mozilla Maintenance Service on Windows.
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Determine installed Firefox versionOpen Firefox, click the menu button (three horizontal lines), select Help, then About Firefox. Alternatively, run 'firefox --version' from command line or check the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox\CurrentVersion.Affected if Firefox version is 19.0, 19.0.1, 19.0.2, 20.0, 20.0.1, or any version 21.0 or lower. Versions prior to 22.0 are affected.
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Verify Mozilla Maintenance Service presenceOpen Services (services.msc) and look for 'Mozilla Maintenance Service', or run 'sc query' from command line. Also check for the service binary at C:\Program Files\Mozilla Maintenance\ maintenanceservice.exe.Affected if The Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed and running on the system.
A system is affected if it is running Windows with Firefox version 21.0 or earlier (including 19.0, 19.0.1, 19.0.2, 20.0, 20.0.1) that has the Mozilla Maintenance Service installed.
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 Firefox to version 22.0 or later, which contains the fix for the Maintenance Service vulnerability. In enterprise environments, ensure the upgrade is deployed to all affected Windows systems.
Fix this in Firefox
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-1700 — 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-2013-1700 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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