Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2016-5280

Use-after-free vulnerability in the mozilla::nsTextNodeDirectionalityMap::RemoveElementFromMap function in Mozilla Firefox before 49.0, Firefox ESR 45.x before 45.4, and Thunderbird < 45.4 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via bidirectional text.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from mozilla organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2016, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2016-09-22T22:59:14.850

Last Modified

2025-04-12T10:46:40.837

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 9.8 (CRITICAL)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-416

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	mozilla	firefox	≤ 48.0.2	Yes
Application	mozilla	firefox	45.0	Yes
Application	mozilla	firefox	45.0.1	Yes
Application	mozilla	firefox	45.0.2	Yes
Application	mozilla	firefox	45.1.1	Yes
Application	mozilla	firefox	45.2.0	Yes
Application	mozilla	firefox	45.3.0	Yes

References

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1912.html ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3674 ([email protected])
http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2016/mfsa2016-85.html Release Notes, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2016-3090545.html ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93049 ([email protected])
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036852 ([email protected])
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1289970 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-15 ([email protected])
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-86/ ([email protected])
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-88/ ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1912.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3674 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2016/mfsa2016-85.html Release Notes, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2016-3090545.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93049 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036852 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1289970 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-15 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-86/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-88/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For mozilla's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.