run-mozilla.sh in Thunderbird, with debugging enabled, allows local users to create or overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files.

Several security related problems have been discovered in Mozilla Thunderbird. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following vulnerabilities :

  - CVE-2005-2353     The 'run-mozilla.sh' script allows local users to create     or overwrite arbitrary files when debugging is enabled     via a symlink attack on temporary files.

  - CVE-2005-4134     Web pages with extremely long titles cause subsequent     launches of the browser to appear to 'hang' for up to a     few minutes, or even crash if the computer has     insufficient memory. [MFSA-2006-03]

  - CVE-2006-0292     The JavaScript interpreter does not properly dereference     objects, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial     of service or execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-01]

  - CVE-2006-0293     The function allocation code allows attackers to cause a     denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code.
    [MFSA-2006-01]

  - CVE-2006-0296     XULDocument.persist() did not validate the attribute     name, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary XML and     JavaScript code into localstore.rdf that would be read     and acted upon during startup. [MFSA-2006-05]

  - CVE-2006-0748     An anonymous researcher for TippingPoint and the Zero     Day Initiative reported that an invalid and nonsensical     ordering of table-related tags can be exploited to     execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-27]

  - CVE-2006-0749     A particular sequence of HTML tags can cause memory     corruption that can be exploited to execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-18]

  - CVE-2006-0884     Georgi Guninski reports that forwarding mail in-line     while using the default HTML 'rich mail' editor will     execute JavaScript embedded in the e-mail message with     full privileges of the client. [MFSA-2006-21]

  - CVE-2006-1045     The HTML rendering engine does not properly block     external images from inline HTML attachments when 'Block     loading of remote images in mail messages' is enabled,     which could allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive     information. [MFSA-2006-26]

  - CVE-2006-1529     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1530     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1531     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1723     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1724     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1727     Georgi Guninski reported two variants of using scripts     in an XBL control to gain chrome privileges when the     page is viewed under 'Print Preview'. [MFSA-2006-25]

  - CVE-2006-1728     'shutdown' discovered that the     crypto.generateCRMFRequest method can be used to run     arbitrary code with the privilege of the user running     the browser, which could enable an attacker to install     malware. [MFSA-2006-24]

  - CVE-2006-1729     Claus Jorgensen reported that a text input box can be     pre-filled with a filename and then turned into a     file-upload control, allowing a malicious website to     steal any local file whose name they can guess.
    [MFSA-2006-23]

  - CVE-2006-1730     An anonymous researcher for TippingPoint and the Zero     Day Initiative discovered an integer overflow triggered     by the CSS letter-spacing property, which could be     exploited to execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-22]

  - CVE-2006-1731     'moz_bug_r_a4' discovered that some internal functions     return prototypes instead of objects, which allows     remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting     attacks. [MFSA-2006-19]

  - CVE-2006-1732     'shutdown' discovered that it is possible to bypass     same-origin protections, allowing a malicious site to     inject script into content from another site, which     could allow the malicious page to steal information such     as cookies or passwords from the other site, or perform     transactions on the user's behalf if the user were     already logged in. [MFSA-2006-17]

  - CVE-2006-1733     'moz_bug_r_a4' discovered that the compilation scope of     privileged built-in XBL bindings is not fully protected     from web content and can still be executed which could     be used to execute arbitrary JavaScript, which could     allow an attacker to install malware such as viruses and     password sniffers. [MFSA-2006-16]

  - CVE-2006-1734     'shutdown' discovered that it is possible to access an     internal function object which could then be used to run     arbitrary JavaScript code with full permissions of the     user running the browser, which could be used to install     spyware or viruses. [MFSA-2006-15]

  - CVE-2006-1735     It is possible to create JavaScript functions that would     get compiled with the wrong privileges, allowing an     attacker to run code of their choice with full     permissions of the user running the browser, which could     be used to install spyware or viruses. [MFSA-2006-14]

  - CVE-2006-1736     It is possible to trick users into downloading and     saving an executable file via an image that is overlaid     by a transparent image link that points to the     executable. [MFSA-2006-13]

  - CVE-2006-1737     An integer overflow allows remote attackers to cause a     denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     bytecode via JavaScript with a large regular expression.
    [MFSA-2006-11]

  - CVE-2006-1738     An unspecified vulnerability allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service. [MFSA-2006-11]

  - CVE-2006-1739     Certain Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can cause an     out-of-bounds array write and buffer overflow that could     lead to a denial of service and the possible execution     of arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-11]

  - CVE-2006-1740     It is possible for remote attackers to spoof secure site     indicators such as the locked icon by opening the     trusted site in a popup window, then changing the     location to a malicious site. [MFSA-2006-12]

  - CVE-2006-1741     'shutdown' discovered that it is possible to inject     arbitrary JavaScript code into a page on another site     using a modal alert to suspend an event handler while a     new page is being loaded. This could be used to steal     confidential information. [MFSA-2006-09]

  - CVE-2006-1742     Igor Bukanov discovered that the JavaScript engine does     not properly handle temporary variables, which might     allow remote attackers to trigger operations on freed     memory and cause memory corruption. [MFSA-2006-10]

  - CVE-2006-1790     A regression fix that could lead to memory corruption     allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and     possibly execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-11]

Several security related problems have been discovered in Mozilla. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following vulnerabilities :

  - CVE-2005-2353     The 'run-mozilla.sh' script allows local users to create     or overwrite arbitrary files when debugging is enabled     via a symlink attack on temporary files.

  - CVE-2005-4134     Web pages with extremely long titles cause subsequent     launches of the browser to appear to 'hang' for up to a     few minutes, or even crash if the computer has     insufficient memory. [MFSA-2006-03]

  - CVE-2006-0292     The JavaScript interpreter does not properly dereference     objects, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial     of service or execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-01]

  - CVE-2006-0293     The function allocation code allows attackers to cause a     denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code.
    [MFSA-2006-01]

  - CVE-2006-0296     XULDocument.persist() did not validate the attribute     name, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary XML and     JavaScript code into localstore.rdf that would be read     and acted upon during startup. [MFSA-2006-05]

  - CVE-2006-0748     An anonymous researcher for TippingPoint and the Zero     Day Initiative reported that an invalid and nonsensical     ordering of table-related tags can be exploited to     execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-27]

  - CVE-2006-0749     A particular sequence of HTML tags can cause memory     corruption that can be exploited to execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-18]

  - CVE-2006-0884     Georgi Guninski reports that forwarding mail in-line     while using the default HTML 'rich mail' editor will     execute JavaScript embedded in the e-mail message with     full privileges of the client. [MFSA-2006-21]

  - CVE-2006-1045     The HTML rendering engine does not properly block     external images from inline HTML attachments when 'Block     loading of remote images in mail messages' is enabled,     which could allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive     information. [MFSA-2006-26]

  - CVE-2006-1529     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1530     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1531     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1723     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1724     A vulnerability potentially allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     code. [MFSA-2006-20]

  - CVE-2006-1725     Due to an interaction between XUL content windows and     the history mechanism, some windows may to become     translucent, which might allow remote attackers to     execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-29]

  - CVE-2006-1726     'shutdown' discovered that the security check of the     function js_ValueToFunctionObject() can be circumvented     and exploited to allow the installation of malware.
    [MFSA-2006-28]

  - CVE-2006-1727     Georgi Guninski reported two variants of using scripts     in an XBL control to gain chrome privileges when the     page is viewed under 'Print Preview'. [MFSA-2006-25]

  - CVE-2006-1728     'shutdown' discovered that the     crypto.generateCRMFRequest method can be used to run     arbitrary code with the privilege of the user running     the browser, which could enable an attacker to install     malware. [MFSA-2006-24]

  - CVE-2006-1729     Claus Jorgensen reported that a text input box can be     pre-filled with a filename and then turned into a     file-upload control, allowing a malicious website to     steal any local file whose name they can guess.
    [MFSA-2006-23]

  - CVE-2006-1730     An anonymous researcher for TippingPoint and the Zero     Day Initiative discovered an integer overflow triggered     by the CSS letter-spacing property, which could be     exploited to execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-22]

  - CVE-2006-1731     'moz_bug_r_a4' discovered that some internal functions     return prototypes instead of objects, which allows     remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting     attacks. [MFSA-2006-19]

  - CVE-2006-1732     'shutdown' discovered that it is possible to bypass     same-origin protections, allowing a malicious site to     inject script into content from another site, which     could allow the malicious page to steal information such     as cookies or passwords from the other site, or perform     transactions on the user's behalf if the user were     already logged in. [MFSA-2006-17]

  - CVE-2006-1733     'moz_bug_r_a4' discovered that the compilation scope of     privileged built-in XBL bindings is not fully protected     from web content and can still be executed which could     be used to execute arbitrary JavaScript, which could     allow an attacker to install malware such as viruses and     password sniffers. [MFSA-2006-16]

  - CVE-2006-1734     'shutdown' discovered that it is possible to access an     internal function object which could then be used to run     arbitrary JavaScript code with full permissions of the     user running the browser, which could be used to install     spyware or viruses. [MFSA-2006-15]

  - CVE-2006-1735     It is possible to create JavaScript functions that would     get compiled with the wrong privileges, allowing an     attacker to run code of their choice with full     permissions of the user running the browser, which could     be used to install spyware or viruses. [MFSA-2006-14]

  - CVE-2006-1736     It is possible to trick users into downloading and     saving an executable file via an image that is overlaid     by a transparent image link that points to the     executable. [MFSA-2006-13]

  - CVE-2006-1737     An integer overflow allows remote attackers to cause a     denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary     bytecode via JavaScript with a large regular expression.
    [MFSA-2006-11]

  - CVE-2006-1738     An unspecified vulnerability allows remote attackers to     cause a denial of service. [MFSA-2006-11]

  - CVE-2006-1739     Certain Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can cause an     out-of-bounds array write and buffer overflow that could     lead to a denial of service and the possible execution     of arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-11]

  - CVE-2006-1740     It is possible for remote attackers to spoof secure site     indicators such as the locked icon by opening the     trusted site in a popup window, then changing the     location to a malicious site. [MFSA-2006-12]

  - CVE-2006-1741     'shutdown' discovered that it is possible to inject     arbitrary JavaScript code into a page on another site     using a modal alert to suspend an event handler while a     new page is being loaded. This could be used to steal     confidential information. [MFSA-2006-09]

  - CVE-2006-1742     Igor Bukanov discovered that the JavaScript engine does     not properly handle temporary variables, which might     allow remote attackers to trigger operations on freed     memory and cause memory corruption. [MFSA-2006-10]

  - CVE-2006-1790     A regression fix that could lead to memory corruption     allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and     possibly execute arbitrary code. [MFSA-2006-11]

Vladimir V. Perepelitsa discovered a bug in Thunderbird's handling of anonymous functions during regular expression string replacement. A malicious HTML email could exploit this to capture a random block of client memory. (CAN-2005-0989)

Georgi Guninski discovered that the types of certain XPInstall related JavaScript objects were not sufficiently validated when they were called. This could be exploited by malicious HTML email content to crash Thunderbird or even execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. (CAN-2005-1159) 

Thunderbird did not properly verify the values of XML DOM nodes. By tricking the user to perform a common action like clicking on a link or opening the context menu, a malicious HTML email could exploit this to execute arbitrary JavaScript code with the full privileges of the user. (CAN-2005-1160)

A variant of the attack described in CAN-2005-1160 (see USN-124-1) was discovered. Additional checks were added to make sure JavaScript eval and script objects are run with the privileges of the context that created them, not the potentially elevated privilege of the context calling them. (CAN-2005-1532)

Scripts in XBL controls from web content continued to be run even when JavaScript was disabled. This could be combined with most script-based exploits to attack people running vulnerable versions who thought disabling JavaScript would protect them. (CAN-2005-2261)

The function for version comparison in the addons installer did not properly verify the type of its argument. By passing specially crafted JavaScript objects to it, a malicious website could crash Thunderbird and possibly even execute arbitrary code with the privilege of the user account Thunderbird runs in. (CAN-2005-2265)

The XHTML DOM node handler did not take namespaces into account when verifying node types based on their names. For example, an XHTML email could contain an <IMG> tag with malicious contents, which would then be processed as the standard trusted HTML <img> tag. By tricking an user to view a malicious email, this could be exploited to execute attacker-specified code with the full privileges of the user.
(CAN-2005-2269) 

It was discovered that some objects were not created appropriately.
This allowed malicious web content scripts to trace back the creation chain until they found a privileged object and execute code with higher privileges than allowed by the current site. (CAN-2005-2270) 

Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pena discovered that the run-mozilla.sh script created temporary files in an unsafe way when running with 'debugging' enabled. This could allow a symlink attack to create or overwrite arbitrary files with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CAN-2005-2353)

The update for Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) also fixes several less critical vulnerabilities which are not present in the Ubuntu 5.04 version. (MFSA-2005-02 to MFSA-2005-30; please see the following web site for details:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vulnerabilities.html).
We apologize for the huge delay of this update; we changed our update strategy for Mozilla products to make sure that such long delays will not happen again.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Updated Mozilla Thunderbird packages fix various vulnerabilities :

The run-mozilla.sh script, with debugging enabled, would allow local users to create or overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files (CVE-2005-2353).

A bug in the way Thunderbird processes XBM images could be used to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted XBM image file (CVE-2005-2701).

A bug in the way Thunderbird handles certain Unicode sequences could be used to execute arbitrary code via viewing a specially crafted Unicode sequence (CVE-2005-2702).

A bug in the way Thunderbird makes XMLHttp requests could be abused by a malicious web page to exploit other proxy or server flaws from the victim's machine; however, the default behaviour of the browser is to disallow this (CVE-2005-2703).

A bug in the way Thunderbird implemented its XBL interface could be abused by a malicious web page to create an XBL binding in such a way as to allow arbitrary JavaScript execution with chrome permissions (CVE-2005-2704).

An integer overflow in Thunderbird's JavaScript engine could be manipulated in certain conditions to allow a malicious web page to execute arbitrary code (CVE-2005-2705).

A bug in the way Thunderbird displays about: pages could be used to execute JavaScript with chrome privileges (CVE-2005-2706).

A bug in the way Thunderbird opens new windows could be used by a malicious web page to construct a new window without any user interface elements (such as address bar and status bar) that could be used to potentially mislead the user (CVE-2005-2707).

A bug in the way Thunderbird proceesed URLs on the command line could be used to execute arbitary commands as the user running Thunderbird;
this could be abused by clicking on a supplied link, such as from an instant messaging client (CVE-2005-2968).

Tom Ferris reported that Thunderbird would crash when processing a domain name consisting solely of soft-hyphen characters due to a heap overflow when IDN processing results in an empty string after removing non-wrapping chracters, such as soft-hyphens. This could be exploited to run or or install malware on the user's computer (CVE-2005-2871).

The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.

New updates are available for Mozilla Firefox :

A regression in the LE2005 Firefox package caused problems with cursor movement that has been fixed.

The run-mozilla.sh script, with debugging enabled, would allow local users to create or overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files (CVE-2005-2353).

nsScriptSecurityManager::GetBaseURIScheme didn't handle jar:view-source:... correctly because the jar: and view-source: cases didn't use recursion as they were supposed to. This was corrected in Firefox 1.0.4 and only affects the LE2005 package.

The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
22593	Debian DSA-1051-1 : mozilla-thunderbird - several vulnerabilities	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	critical
22588	Debian DSA-1046-1 : mozilla - several vulnerabilities	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	critical
20560	Ubuntu 4.10 / 5.04 : mozilla-thunderbird vulnerabilities (USN-157-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
20428	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : mozilla-thunderbird (MDKSA-2005:174)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	high
20427	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : mozilla-firefox (MDKSA-2005:173)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	low

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2005-2353

medium

Tenable Plugins

critical

critical

high

high

low