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FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2013-5616

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2013-12-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 24.2 / 26.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable 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
Use-after-free vulnerability in the nsEventListenerManager::HandleEventSubType function in Mozilla Firefox before 26.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.2, Thunderbird before 24.2, and SeaMonkey before 2.23 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (heap memory corruption) via vectors related to mListeners event listeners.

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:< 26.0>= 24.0, < 24.2
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 18= 19= 20
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.5
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 6.5
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.5
Enterprise Linux Server TusOperating system
Affected:= 6.5

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 24.2 / 26.0 or later
Fixed in 24.226.0
Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox 26.0, Firefox ESR 24.2, Thunderbird 24.2, or SeaMonkey 2.23 (or later versions of each)

  1. Upgrade Firefox to version 26.0 or later
  2. If using Firefox ESR, upgrade to version 24.2 or later
  3. If using Thunderbird, upgrade to version 24.2 or later
  4. If using SeaMonkey, upgrade to version 2.23 or later
  5. After upgrading, verify the version by navigating to Help > About in the application

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 $3,550. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2013-5616 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