ZDI-10-048: Mozilla Firefox nsTreeContentView Dangling Pointer Remote Code Execution Vulnerability http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-10-048 April 2, 2010 -- CVE ID: CVE-2010-0176 -- Affected Vendors: Mozilla Firefox -- Affected Products: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.x -- Vulnerability Details: This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Mozilla Firefox. User interaction is required in that the victim must visit a malicious website or be coerced into opening a malicious document. The specific flaw exists within the way that Mozilla's Firefox parses .XUL files. While appending a particular tag to a treechildren container, the application will create more than one reference to a particular element without increasing its reference count. Upon removal of one of the elements, the refcount will be decreased causing the application to free the memory associated with the object. Due to the rogue reference occurring, the next time the application attempts to reference that container, the application will access memory that has been freed which can lead to code execution under the context of the application. -- Vendor Response: Mozilla Firefox has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at: http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2010/mfsa2010-18.html -- Disclosure Timeline: 2010-01-06 - Vulnerability reported to vendor 2010-04-02 - Coordinated public release of advisory -- Credit: This vulnerability was discovered by: * regenrecht -- About the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI): Established by TippingPoint, The Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) represents a best-of-breed model for rewarding security researchers for responsibly disclosing discovered vulnerabilities. Researchers interested in getting paid for their security research through the ZDI can find more information and sign-up at: http://www.zerodayinitiative.com The ZDI is unique in how the acquired vulnerability information is used. TippingPoint does not re-sell the vulnerability details or any exploit code. Instead, upon notifying the affected product vendor, TippingPoint provides its customers with zero day protection through its intrusion prevention technology. Explicit details regarding the specifics of the vulnerability are not exposed to any parties until an official vendor patch is publicly available. Furthermore, with the altruistic aim of helping to secure a broader user base, TippingPoint provides this vulnerability information confidentially to security vendors (including competitors) who have a vulnerability protection or mitigation product. Our vulnerability disclosure policy is available online at: http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/disclosure_policy/ Follow the ZDI on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thezdi _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/