FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla
CVE-2018-5112
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 · uneditedDevelopment Tools panels of an extension are required to load URLs for the panels as relative URLs from the extension manifest file but this requirement was not enforced in all instances. This could allow the development tools panel for the extension to load a URL that it should not be able to access, including potentially privileged pages. 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's extension developer tools panel mechanism failed to enforce that panel URLs must be relative paths defined in the extension manifest. This allowed extensions to load arbitrary URLs including privileged browser pages that should have been restricted.
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
FirefoxWeb browser
<= 57.0.4
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
= 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 and navigate to about:support, or run 'firefox --version' from command line. Alternatively, check /usr/lib/firefox/version.txt or the Firefox package version via dpkg/apt.Affected if The version is 57.0.4 or earlier (any version <= 57.0.4 is affected).
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Identify extensions with developer tool panelsExamine extension manifest files in your Firefox profile directory (typically ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/extensions/). Look for extensions that define 'devtools_panel' in their manifest.json files.Affected if Any installed extension includes a 'devtools_panel' entry pointing to a non-relative or privileged URL (such as moz-extension:, about:, or chrome:// URLs pointing to browser internals).
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Inspect extension manifest panel URLsFor each extension with a devtools_panel declaration, review the URL value in the manifest. Check whether the URL is a relative path (e.g., 'panel.html') or an absolute/privileged URL.Affected if The extension's devtools_panel URL is an absolute path or references privileged browser pages rather than a relative path defined within the extension.
You are affected if Firefox version is 57.0.4 or earlier AND any installed extension defines a devtools_panel in its manifest with a non-relative or privileged URL.
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 Firefox to version 58 or later to obtain the patched version that properly validates development tool panel URLs.
Fix this in Firefox
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-5112 — 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-2018-5112 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
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