Mozilla privilege escalation using addSelectionListener

Overview

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Mozilla addSelectionListener method. This may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

Description

addSelectionListener

Web content can add a SelectionListener to the Selection object by using addSelectionListener method of the nsISelectionPrivate interface. This listener would be called when the user performs a “find” or “select all” command.

The problem

The notifications are created in a privileged context, which can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code. Mozilla Firefox and SeaMonkey are reported to be vulnerable.

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Impact

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page, an HTML email message, or an HTML email attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user.

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Solution

Apply an update
Refer to Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-43 for fixed versions of Mozilla products.

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Disable JavaScript

This vulnerability can be mitigated by disabling JavaScript.

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Vendor Information

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Mozilla, Inc. __ Affected

Updated: June 02, 2006

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

Please refer to Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2006-43.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23237257 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2006/mfsa2006-43.html&gt;
• <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=336830&gt;
• <http://www.xulplanet.com/references/xpcomref/ifaces/nsISelectionPrivate.html&gt;
• <http://secunia.com/advisories/21188/&gt;
• <http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/18228&gt;

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory for reporting this vulnerability, who in turn credit moz_bug_r_a4.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2006-2777
Severity Metric:	18.36 Date Public: