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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 21 Mar 2022.
FirefoxWeb browser · Mozilla

CVE-2022-26486

CRITICAL · 9.6 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 91.6.1 / 91.6.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges

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
An unexpected message in the WebGPU IPC framework could lead to a use-after-free and exploitable sandbox escape. We have had reports of attacks in the wild abusing this flaw. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 97.0.2, Firefox ESR < 91.6.1, Firefox for Android < 97.3.0, Thunderbird < 91.6.2, and Focus < 97.3.0.

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 use-after-free vulnerability in the WebGPU IPC framework allows an attacker to escape the sandbox by sending unexpected IPC messages. The memory corruption occurs when the IPC handler fails to properly manage object lifetimes, leading to a dangling pointer that can be reallocated and abused for code execution.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patches by updating affected products to Firefox 97.0.2, Firefox ESR 91.6.1, Firefox for Android 97.3.0, Thunderbird 91.6.2, or Focus 97.3.0 respectively. Prioritize immediate deployment given confirmed in-the-wild exploitation.

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
Affected:< 91.6.1< 97.0.2< 97.3.0
Firefox FocusWeb browser
Affected:< 97.3.0
ThunderbirdApplication
Affected:< 91.6.2

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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. Check Firefox version
    Navigate to menu > Help > About Firefox, or enter 'about:support' in the address bar, or run 'firefox --version' from command line
    Affected if Version is earlier than 91.6.1, 97.0.2, or 97.3.0 (depending on release channel)
  2. Verify if WebGPU is enabled
    Enter 'about:config' in the address bar, search for 'webgpu.enabled' preference, or inspect the configuration file for this setting
    Affected if The preference 'webgpu.enabled' is set to true (default varies by version)
  3. Check Thunderbird version
    Navigate to Help > About Thunderbird, or run 'thunderbird --version' from command line
    Affected if Version is earlier than 91.6.2 and WebGPU is enabled in the application
  4. Check Firefox Focus version
    Open the app, go to Settings > About Firefox Focus, or check the app version in device settings
    Affected if Version is earlier than 97.3.0 and WebGPU is enabled

You are affected if you run any of the listed products below the specified versions AND have WebGPU enabled in your 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 91.6.1 / 91.6.2 / 97.0.2 or later
Fixed in 91.6.191.6.297.0.2
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied patches by updating affected products to Firefox 97.0.2, Firefox ESR 91.6.1, Firefox for Android 97.3.0, Thunderbird 91.6.2, or Focus 97.3.0 respectively. Prioritize immediate deployment given confirmed in-the-wild exploitation.

Recommended fix High confidence

Firefox 97.0.2 / Firefox ESR 91.6.1 / Thunderbird 91.6.2 / Firefox Focus 97.3.0 / Firefox for Android 97.3.0

  1. Identify the currently installed Firefox, Firefox ESR, Firefox Focus, or Thunderbird version
  2. Navigate to the official Mozilla download page at www.mozilla.org or use the application's built-in update mechanism
  3. Download the appropriate fixed version: Firefox 97.0.2 (or Firefox ESR 91.6.1), Thunderbird 91.6.2, Firefox for Android 97.3.0, or Firefox Focus 97.3.0
  4. Close all instances of the affected application
  5. Install the updated version by running the downloaded installer
  6. Restart the application and verify the version number matches the fixed release
  7. Ensure automatic updates are enabled to receive future security patches
Caveat Standard major/minor version upgrade; minor UI changes possible but no major functionality breaking changes expected

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

Fix this in Firefox Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

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-2022-26486 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