CVE-2018-5111
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 · uneditedWhen the text of a specially formatted URL is dragged to the addressbar from page content, the displayed URL can be spoofed to show a different site than the one loaded. This allows for phishing attacks where a malicious page can spoof the identify of another site. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 58.
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 confidenceFirefox fails to properly validate and display the actual destination URL when a specially formatted URL is dragged from page content to the address bar. The displayed URL differs from the URL that will be loaded, enabling attackers to impersonate legitimate sites for phishing attacks.
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<= 57.0.4= 14.04= 16.04= 17.10CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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 installed Firefox versionOpen Firefox, click the menu button (three horizontal lines), select Help, then About Firefox. Alternatively, type 'about:support' in the address bar and look for the Version field.Affected if The displayed version is 57.0.4 or lower (any version from 57.0 through 57.0.4, or any version before 57.0)
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Check Firefox version from command lineRun 'firefox --version' or 'firefox -v' in a terminal. On Ubuntu, also check via package manager: 'dpkg -l | grep firefox' or 'apt list --installed | grep firefox'.Affected if The version shown is 57.0.4 or lower
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Verify the URL spoofing conditionCreate a test URL with unusual formatting (such as one with embedded null characters, excessive slashes, or deceptive whitespace) and drag it from a webpage to the address bar. Observe whether the displayed URL in the address bar differs from the actual URL that would be loaded.Affected if The URL shown in the address bar does not match the actual destination URL that will be loaded when pressing Enter
You are affected if Firefox version is 57.0.4 or lower, and the URL display can be made to show a different address than the one that will actually be loaded.
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 dataUpgrade Firefox to version 58 or later, which contains the fix for this URL spoofing vulnerability.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-5111 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-5111 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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- 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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