dbcve.org
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2017-5464

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-06-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 53.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
During DOM manipulations of the accessibility tree through script, the DOM tree can become out of sync with the accessibility tree, leading to memory corruption and a potentially exploitable crash. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 52.1, Firefox ESR < 45.9, Firefox ESR < 52.1, and Firefox < 53.

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

A race condition exists in Firefox and Thunderbird where DOM manipulations through script can cause the accessibility tree to become desynchronized from the actual DOM tree. This state leads to memory corruption and potentially exploitable crashes due to the mismatch between what the accessibility layer expects and the actual DOM structure.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patches by upgrading to Firefox 53+, Firefox ESR 52.1+, Firefox ESR 45.9+, or Thunderbird 52.1+ as appropriate for the affected installation.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 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:= 6.0= 7.0
FirefoxWeb browser
Affected:< 53.0= 52.0

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

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. Identify installed Mozilla product
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep -i firefox' or 'rpm -qa | grep -i thunderbird' on RHEL-based systems, or 'dpkg -l | grep -i firefox' or 'dpkg -l | grep -i thunderbird' on Debian-based systems to see which Mozilla product is installed
    Affected if Firefox or Thunderbird is installed
  2. Determine Firefox version
    Run 'firefox --version' or check 'Help > About Firefox' in the GUI to obtain the exact version number
    Affected if Firefox version is less than 53.0 or specifically 52.0.x
  3. Determine Thunderbird version
    Run 'thunderbird --version' or check 'Help > About Thunderbird' in the GUI to obtain the exact version number
    Affected if Thunderbird is installed and version is affected per vendor advisories (less than 52.1)
  4. Check if accessibility features are enabled
    In Firefox, go to Options > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and verify if 'Always use the accessibility service' is enabled; on Linux systems, check if assistive technologies are loaded by examining /etc/passwd for users with assistive technology flags or running 'gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface toolkit-accessibility'
    Affected if Accessibility features are enabled (this is required for the vulnerability to be exploitable as the flaw involves desynchronization of the accessibility tree)

You are affected if you have Firefox version < 53.0 (or specifically 52.0.x) or an affected Thunderbird version, AND the accessibility feature is enabled in your browser configuration.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 53.0 or later
Fixed in 53.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patches by upgrading to Firefox 53+, Firefox ESR 52.1+, Firefox ESR 45.9+, or Thunderbird 52.1+ as appropriate for the affected installation.

Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox 53.0+, Firefox ESR 45.9+, Firefox ESR 52.1+, Thunderbird 52.1+ (or vendor-provided patched packages for Linux distributions)

  1. 1. Identify the installed Firefox/Thunderbird version by navigating to Help > About (or checking the package manager)
  2. 2. For Firefox: Upgrade to version 53.0 or later (recommended: latest stable release)
  3. 3. For Firefox ESR: If on ESR 45.x, upgrade to 45.9 or later; if on ESR 52.x, upgrade to 52.1 or later
  4. 4. For Thunderbird: Upgrade to version 52.1 or later
  5. 5. For Linux distributions (Debian 8.0, RHEL 6/7): Apply vendor security updates via package manager (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade for Debian; yum update for RHEL)
  6. 6. Restart the application after upgrading
  7. 7. Verify the installed version matches or exceeds the fixed version numbers above
Caveat Major version upgrades may introduce compatibility issues with older extensions or plugins; test in a non-production environment first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

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-2017-5464 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