vSOC SPOT Report: Mozilla Firefox Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability

Overview

On January 29th, Mozilla developer Johann Hofmann reported that there was a major Arbitrary Code Execution vulnerability (CVE-2018-5124) within the browser’s user interface (UI) that allows a remote attacker to execute specially crafted code by exploitation of the unsanitized HTML output in the browser’s “Chrome” component. The UI vulnerability has received a CVSS score of 8.8 out of 10 due to the ability for it to be easily exploited without the user’s knowledge.

Technical Overview

The attacker hides unsanitized HTML code within the Firefox “Chrome” component, which does not run separately from the HTML present on a web page. If the attacker hides unsanitized HTML inside the browser’s UI code, the execution chain can be broken away from Firefox’s UI component and allow commands to be run on the computer. The code itself runs with whatever the current user’s privileges are. For example, if the user is an administrator then the code can run SYSTEM level commands. Due to the fact CVE-2018-5124 relies on running untrusted code, it has the ability to be hidden within an iframe, loaded-off screen, or loaded via a drive-by download without the user’s knowledge.

Potential Impact

Exploit kit developers are expected to jump on this vulnerability and add CVE-2018-5124 to their arsenal of targeted vulnerabilities in order to load malware on users’ machines. The biggest impact would come from exploitation of this flaw involving a user with administrative privileges and could allow an attacker to gain a foothold due to the factors involving this vulnerability by running SYSTEM level commands on the compromised system. This security flaw allows an attacker to easily deliver malware and potentially gain control over the user’s machine. This vulnerability is not currently known to affect Firefox for Android and Firefox 52 ESR.

What You Should Do

It is recommended that users update their version of Mozilla Firefox if it is one of the following versions:

• Mozilla Firefox 56.x
• Mozilla Firefox 57.x
• Mozilla Firefox 58.0.0

Mozilla has fixed the flaw by sanitizing the code executed by its chrome UI component, and this is included as part of the new patch released for the vulnerable versions.

Supporting Information

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2018-05/
• https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/mozilla-fixes-severe-flaw-in-firefox-ui-that-leads-to-remote-code-execution/
• https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/102843