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FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2014-1490

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-02-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.24 / 3.15.4 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
Race condition in libssl in Mozilla Network Security Services (NSS) before 3.15.4, as used in Mozilla Firefox before 27.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.3, Thunderbird before 24.3, SeaMonkey before 2.24, and other products, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (use-after-free) or possibly have unspecified other impact via vectors involving a resumption handshake that triggers incorrect replacement of a session ticket.

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-362

Two operations that should be atomic can interleave, so an attacker who wins a narrow timing window reaches an inconsistent, exploitable state. These bugs are subtle and easy to miss in review. Fixing them properly means correct locking or atomic operations around the shared resource.

General guidance for the race condition 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:< 24.3< 27.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 19= 20
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 12.04= 12.10= 13.10
Network Security ServicesApplication
Affected:< 3.15.4
SeamonkeyApplication
Affected:< 2.24
ThunderbirdApplication
Affected:< 24.3.0
Enterprise Manager Ops CenterApplication
Affected:< 12.1.4= 12.2.0= 12.2.1= 12.3.0

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 2.24 / 3.15.4 / 12.1.4 or later
Fixed in 2.243.15.412.1.4
Vendor patch bugzilla.mozilla.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

NSS 3.15.4; Firefox 27.0 (or ESR 24.3); Thunderbird 24.3.0; SeaMonkey 2.24

  1. Identify the affected application from the list: Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, or another product using NSS
  2. For Firefox: Upgrade to version 27.0 or later (or ESR 24.3 or later for ESR releases)
  3. For Thunderbird: Upgrade to version 24.3.0 or later
  4. For SeaMonkey: Upgrade to version 2.24 or later
  5. For NSS library directly: Upgrade to version 3.15.4 or later
  6. For Fedora/Debian/Ubuntu: Apply vendor security updates for the firefox/thunderbird/seamonkey/nss packages

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

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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-2014-1490 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
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