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FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2013-1706

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-08-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 22.0 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

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
Stack-based buffer overflow in maintenanceservice.exe in the Mozilla Maintenance Service in Mozilla Firefox before 23.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.8, Thunderbird before 17.0.8, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before 17.0.8 allows local users to gain privileges via a long pathname on the command line.

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 confidence

Stack-based buffer overflow in the Mozilla Maintenance Service (maintenanceservice.exe) allows local users to gain elevated privileges by providing an overly long pathname as a command-line argument. This occurs because the application fails to properly validate the length of the pathname before copying it into a fixed-size stack buffer.

MitigationUpgrade to Firefox 23.0 or later, Firefox ESR 17.0.8 or later, Thunderbird 17.0.8 or later, or Thunderbird ESR 17.0.8 or later to obtain the patched version of the Maintenance Service.

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
Affected:= 17.0= 17.0.1= 17.0.2= 17.0.3= 17.0.4= 17.0.5= 17.0.6= 17.0.7<= 22.0= 19.0= 19.0.1= 19.0.2
ThunderbirdApplication
Affected:<= 17.0.7= 17.0= 17.0.1= 17.0.2= 17.0.3= 17.0.4= 17.0.5= 17.0.6
Thunderbird EsrApplication
Affected:= 17.0= 17.0.1= 17.0.2= 17.0.3= 17.0.4= 17.0.5= 17.0.6= 17.0.7

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed
    Look for maintenanceservice.exe in typical locations: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Maintenance Service\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Maintenance Service\. You can also check Windows Services (services.msc) for a service named 'Mozilla Maintenance Service'.
    Affected if The service is present on the system.
  2. Determine Firefox version
    Open Firefox and navigate to Help > About Firefox, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox\CurrentVersion (or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox\CurrentVersion on 64-bit).
    Affected if The version matches any of: 17.0, 17.0.1, 17.0.2, 17.0.3, 17.0.4, 17.0.5, 17.0.6, 17.0.7, 19.0, 19.0.1, 19.0.2, or any version <= 22.0.
  3. Determine Thunderbird version
    Open Thunderbird and navigate to Help > About Thunderbird, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Thunderbird\CurrentVersion (or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Mozilla Thunderbird\CurrentVersion on 64-bit).
    Affected if The version matches any of: 17.0 through 17.0.7, or any version <= 17.0.7.
  4. Check for Thunderbird ESR version
    If Thunderbird ESR is installed, check the version via Help > About Thunderbird or the registry key under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Thunderbird ESR\CurrentVersion.
    Affected if The version matches any of: 17.0, 17.0.1, 17.0.2, 17.0.3, 17.0.4, 17.0.5, 17.0.6, or 17.0.7.

The system is affected if the Mozilla Maintenance Service is installed AND any installed Firefox, Thunderbird, or Thunderbird ESR version falls within the affected ranges listed above.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 22.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Firefox 23.0 or later, Firefox ESR 17.0.8 or later, Thunderbird 17.0.8 or later, or Thunderbird ESR 17.0.8 or later to obtain the patched version of the Maintenance Service.

Fix this in Firefox Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-1706 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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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-2013-1706 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