CVE-2013-1706 in Firefox
Summary
by MITRE
Stack-based buffer overflow in maintenanceservice.exe in the Mozilla Maintenance Service in Mozilla Firefox before 23.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.8, Thunderbird before 17.0.8, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before 17.0.8 allows local users to gain privileges via a long pathname on the command line.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/21/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-1706 represents a critical stack-based buffer overflow flaw within the Mozilla Maintenance Service component of several Mozilla applications including Firefox and Thunderbird. This vulnerability specifically affects versions prior to 23.0 for Firefox and Firefox ESR 17.x, as well as Thunderbird versions before 17.0.8 and Thunderbird ESR 17.x. The issue resides in the maintenanceservice.exe executable which serves as a background service responsible for managing updates and maintenance operations within the Mozilla ecosystem. The buffer overflow occurs when the service processes command line arguments containing excessively long pathnames, creating a condition where memory beyond the allocated buffer space can be overwritten.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability leverages a classic stack-based buffer overflow pattern where an attacker can supply a command line argument containing a pathname that exceeds the buffer capacity allocated for processing within the maintenanceservice.exe application. This flaw falls under CWE-121 Stack-based Buffer Overflow, which is categorized as a fundamental memory safety issue in software development practices. When the service attempts to process this excessively long pathname, it writes data beyond the bounds of the allocated stack buffer, potentially overwriting adjacent memory locations including return addresses and function pointers. This type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous as it can be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the maintenance service.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it provides local users with the ability to escalate privileges on affected systems. Since the Mozilla Maintenance Service typically runs with elevated privileges to perform system-level maintenance operations, a successful exploitation could allow an attacker to gain administrative access to the target machine. The attack vector requires local system access, meaning that an attacker must already have user-level access to the system to exploit this vulnerability. However, the privilege escalation aspect makes this particularly concerning for environments where users may have access to systems but should not possess administrative rights. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068, which covers 'Local Privilege Escalation' through the exploitation of software vulnerabilities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-1706 primarily involve upgrading to patched versions of the affected Mozilla applications where the buffer overflow has been resolved through proper input validation and bounds checking. Mozilla released versions 23.0 for Firefox, 17.0.8 for Firefox ESR 17.x, 17.0.8 for Thunderbird, and 17.0.8 for Thunderbird ESR 17.x to address this issue. Organizations should implement comprehensive patch management procedures to ensure all affected systems receive the necessary updates promptly. Additionally, system administrators should consider implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of untrusted executables and monitor for unusual command line arguments being passed to system services. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and memory management practices in security-critical components, emphasizing the need for defensive programming techniques such as bounds checking and stack canaries. Security monitoring should include detection of suspicious command line parameters and service execution patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts.