Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical
CVE-2016-2834
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 · uneditedMozilla Network Security Services (NSS) before 3.23, as used in Mozilla Firefox before 47.0, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via unknown 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 · moderate confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in Mozilla Network Security Services (NSS) library versions before 3.23, as used in Firefox before 47.0. The flaw allows remote attackers to cause denial of service through memory corruption and application crashes, with potential for unspecified other impact via unknown attack vectors.
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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
= 12.04= 14.04= 15.10= 16.04
FirefoxWeb browser
<= 46.0.1= 42.1= 13.1= 13.2<= 3.22= 12.0= 12.0= 12.0CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Check Firefox browser versionOpen Firefox and navigate to Help > About Firefox, or run 'firefox --version' from command lineAffected if Version is 46.0.1 or earlier (any version <= 46.0.1)
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Check NSS library version on Linux systemsRun 'nss --version' or 'pkg-config --modversion nss' from command line, or inspect the NSS library file (libnss3.so) with 'rpm -q nss' (RHEL) or 'dpkg -l libnss3' (Debian/Ubuntu)Affected if NSS version displayed is 3.22.x or earlier (any version <= 3.22)
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Verify NSS on Firefox ESR distributionsCheck the bundled NSS version within the Firefox installation directory: examine the version file or library metadata included with the Firefox packageAffected if Bundled NSS library is version 3.22 or earlier
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Check Ubuntu NSS package versionRun 'dpkg -l | grep libnss' on Ubuntu systems to list installed NSS packages and their versionsAffected if Package version indicates NSS <= 3.22
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Check SUSE NSS package versionRun 'rpm -qa | grep nss' on SUSE systems to list installed NSS packagesAffected if Package version indicates NSS <= 3.22
Your environment is affected if Firefox version is 46.0.1 or earlier, or if the installed NSS library version is 3.22 or earlier.
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 dataUpdate NSS library to version 3.23 or later and Mozilla Firefox to 47.0 or later to remediate the memory corruption vulnerability.
Fix this in Ubuntu Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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 $3,072.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-2834 — 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- www.mozilla.org
- bugzilla.mozilla.org
- bugzilla.mozilla.org
- bugzilla.mozilla.org
- bugzilla.mozilla.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- lists.opensuse.org
- rhn.redhat.com
- www.debian.org
- www.oracle.com
- www.oracle.com
- www.securityfocus.com
- www.securitytracker.com
- www.ubuntu.com
- www.ubuntu.com
- developer.mozilla.org
- nvd.nist.gov
Practitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-2834 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data