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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2018-5129

HIGH · 8.6 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-06-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 52.7.0 / 59.0 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
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
A lack of parameter validation on IPC messages results in a potential out-of-bounds write through malformed IPC messages. This can potentially allow for sandbox escape through memory corruption in the parent process. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 52.7, Firefox ESR < 52.7, and Firefox < 59.

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

This is a memory corruption vulnerability in the IPC (Inter-Process Communication) layer of Firefox and Thunderbird. The lack of parameter validation on IPC messages allows malformed messages to trigger an out-of-bounds write, potentially enabling an attacker to escape the sandbox and corrupt memory in the parent process.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patches by upgrading to Firefox 59+, Firefox ESR 52.7+, or Thunderbird 52.7+ as appropriate. Organizations should prioritize patching this high-severity vulnerability given its potential for sandbox escape and memory corruption.

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:= 7.0= 8.0= 9.0
FirefoxWeb browser
Affected:< 59.0< 52.7.0
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 7.4
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.4= 7.5
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 14.04= 16.04= 17.10

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
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Firefox version
    Run 'firefox --version' or open Firefox and go to Help > About Firefox
    Affected if Version is below 59.0 or is 52.x but below 52.7.0
  2. Check Thunderbird version
    Run 'thunderbird --version' or open Thunderbird and go to Help > About Thunderbird
    Affected if Version is below 52.7.0
  3. Identify your Linux distribution
    Run 'cat /etc/os-release' or 'lsb_release -a' to identify the OS
    Affected if Running Debian 7.0, 8.0, or 9.0; Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, or 17.10; or RHEL 6.0, 7.0, 7.4, or 7.5 without vendor patches applied

You are affected if you run Firefox below 59.0 or below 52.7.0 ESR, Thunderbird below 52.7.0, or any of the listed Linux distributions with unpatched Firefox/Thunderbird installations.

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.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 52.7.0 / 59.0 or later
Fixed in 52.7.059.0
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied patches by upgrading to Firefox 59+, Firefox ESR 52.7+, or Thunderbird 52.7+ as appropriate. Organizations should prioritize patching this high-severity vulnerability given its potential for sandbox escape and memory corruption.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

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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-2018-5129 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