CVE-2007-2867 in Firefox
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple vulnerabilities in the layout engine for Mozilla Firefox 1.5.x before 1.5.0.12 and 2.x before 2.0.0.4, Thunderbird 1.5.x before 1.5.0.12 and 2.x before 2.0.0.4, and SeaMonkey 1.0.9 and 1.1.2 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via vectors related to dangling pointers, heap corruption, signed/unsigned, and other issues.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/13/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-2867 represents a critical class of memory safety issues affecting the layout engine of several Mozilla applications including Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey. This vulnerability stems from improper handling of memory operations within the browser's rendering engine, specifically in how it processes certain web content that triggers memory corruption conditions. The affected versions include Firefox 1.5.x before 1.5.0.12 and 2.x before 2.0.0.4, Thunderbird 1.5.x before 1.5.0.0.12 and 2.x before 2.0.0.4, and SeaMonkey 1.0.9 and 1.1.2, indicating a widespread impact across the Mozilla ecosystem during that time period.
The technical flaw manifests through multiple attack vectors that exploit different aspects of memory management within the browser's layout engine. These include dangling pointer vulnerabilities where memory addresses become invalid after object deallocation, heap corruption issues that occur when memory is improperly allocated or freed, and signed/unsigned integer comparison problems that can lead to unexpected behavior in memory operations. The vulnerability operates at the core rendering engine level, meaning that malicious web content can trigger these conditions simply through normal web browsing activities without requiring any special privileges or user interaction beyond visiting a compromised website.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability enables remote attackers to execute denial of service attacks against targeted systems by causing the affected applications to crash or become unresponsive. The attack requires no authentication or special privileges, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited through standard web browsing activities. The crash conditions can be reliably triggered by crafting malicious web pages that contain specific patterns of data that cause the layout engine to attempt invalid memory operations, effectively allowing attackers to disrupt normal browser functionality and potentially create persistent service interruptions for users.
The vulnerability aligns with several common weakness enumerations including CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer and CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference, while also mapping to ATT&CK techniques such as T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution and T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service. Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement security patches provided by Mozilla, as the fixes typically involve memory management improvements and input validation enhancements. Additional mitigations include implementing web content filtering solutions, disabling unnecessary browser features, and ensuring users have up-to-date security software. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of memory safety in browser applications and demonstrates how seemingly minor implementation flaws in core components can have significant security implications across entire software ecosystems.