CVE-2005-2266 in Firefox
Summary
by MITRE
Firefox before 1.0.5 and Mozilla before 1.7.9 allows a child frame to call top.focus and other methods in a parent frame, even when the parent is in a different domain, which violates the same origin policy and allows remote attackers to steal sensitive information such as cookies and passwords from web sites whose child frames do not verify that they are in the same domain as their parents.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/05/2021
This vulnerability represents a critical security flaw in web browser implementations that directly violates fundamental web security principles. The issue affects mozilla firefox versions prior to 1.0.5 and mozilla browser versions prior to 1.7.9, where the same origin policy enforcement was insufficient to prevent cross-domain frame manipulation. The same origin policy is a core security mechanism defined by web standards and implemented across all major browsers to prevent malicious code from accessing data across different origins, which are defined by protocol, port, and host components.
The technical flaw manifests when a child frame attempts to execute methods such as top.focus on a parent frame that resides in a different domain. This cross-domain access bypasses the security restrictions that should normally prevent such operations, allowing malicious actors to manipulate the parent frame's behavior despite domain boundaries. The vulnerability specifically enables attackers to access sensitive information stored in the parent frame's context, including cookies, passwords, and other authentication tokens that are typically protected by the same origin policy.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for users of affected browsers, as it enables sophisticated cross-site scripting attacks that can harvest authentication credentials and session information. The attack vector typically involves embedding malicious content in a child frame that tricks the browser into executing cross-domain operations that would normally be blocked. This allows attackers to perform session hijacking, credential theft, and other malicious activities that compromise user security. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it operates at the browser level, bypassing many application-level security controls that websites might implement.
The security implications extend beyond simple information theft, as this flaw enables attackers to perform more sophisticated attacks that can manipulate browser behavior and user interactions across different domains. This vulnerability directly relates to CWE-200, which addresses information exposure, and CWE-226, which covers improper handling of security-sensitive attributes. The attack pattern aligns with ATT&CK technique T1071.001 for application layer protocol, specifically targeting web browser security mechanisms. Organizations should immediately update to patched versions of firefox and mozilla browsers to mitigate this risk, as the vulnerability provides attackers with a direct path to bypass fundamental web security controls.
This flaw demonstrates the critical importance of proper cross-origin resource sharing implementation and the potential consequences when browser security mechanisms are insufficiently enforced. The vulnerability represents a failure in browser sandboxing and access control enforcement, where the security boundaries between different domains were improperly maintained. Security teams should implement additional monitoring for suspicious cross-domain frame interactions and ensure that all browser updates are applied promptly to prevent exploitation of this and similar vulnerabilities. The incident underscores the necessity of maintaining current security practices and the importance of regular security assessments to identify and remediate such critical flaws before they can be exploited in the wild.