USN-2723-1: Firefox vulnerabilities

Publication date

27 August 2015

Overview

Firefox could be made to crash or run programs as your login if it opened a malicious website.


Packages

  • firefox - Mozilla Open Source web browser

Details

A use-after-free was discovered when resizing a canvas element during
restyling in some circumstances. If a user were tricked in to opening a
specially crafted website, an attacker could potentially exploit this to
cause a denial of service via application crash, or execute arbitrary code
with the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2015-4497)

Bas Venis discovered that the addon install permission prompt could be
bypassed using data: URLs in some circumstances. It was also discovered
that the installation notification could be made to appear over another
site. If a user were tricked in to opening a specially crafted website, an
attacker could potentially exploit this to install a malicious addon.
(CVE-2015-4498)

A use-after-free was discovered when resizing a canvas element during
restyling in some circumstances. If a user were tricked in to opening a
specially crafted website, an attacker could potentially exploit this to
cause a denial of service via application crash, or execute arbitrary code
with the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2015-4497)

Bas Venis discovered that the addon install permission prompt could be
bypassed using data: URLs in some circumstances. It was also discovered
that the installation notification could be made to appear over another
site. If a user were tricked in to opening a specially crafted website, an
attacker could potentially exploit this to install a malicious addon.
(CVE-2015-4498)

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to restart Firefox to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
15.04 vivid firefox –  40.0.3+build1-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
14.04 trusty firefox –  40.0.3+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
12.04 precise firefox –  40.0.3+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1

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