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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2017-5404

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-06-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 45.8.0 / 52.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit 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
A use-after-free error can occur when manipulating ranges in selections with one node inside a native anonymous tree and one node outside of it. This results in a potentially exploitable crash. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 52, Firefox ESR < 45.8, Thunderbird < 52, and Thunderbird < 45.8.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.4
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.4= 7.5
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0
FirefoxWeb browser
Affected:< 52.0< 45.8.0

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

CVSS:3.0/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 45.8.0 / 52.0 or later
Fixed in 45.8.052.0
Vendor patch bugzilla.mozilla.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox >= 52.0 or Firefox ESR >= 45.8; Thunderbird >= 52 or Thunderbird ESR >= 45.8

  1. 1. Identify the affected Mozilla product on the system (Firefox or Thunderbird) by checking the installed version
  2. 2. For Debian Linux: Run 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade' to install the latest available packages
  3. 3. For Enterprise Linux (RHEL/CentOS): Run 'yum update' or 'dnf update' to install the latest available packages
  4. 4. Alternatively, download and install Firefox 52.0 or later from https://www.mozilla.org/
  5. 5. Alternatively, download and install Thunderbird 52 or later from https://www.mozilla.org/
  6. 6. Verify the updated version by checking Help > About Firefox or Help > About Thunderbird
Caveat Firefox 52.0 dropped support for most NPAPI plugins (except Adobe Flash); ensure any required browser plugins are compatible

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

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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-2017-5404 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