# CVE-2018-12385: Denial of service in Firefox

> An attacker with local access or malware can trigger a crash in Firefox or Thunderbird by manipulating the local SSL cache, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12385, GHSA-w434-f353-fv6q, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-12385

## What is CVE-2018-12385?

CVE-2018-12385 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 18 Oct 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A potentially exploitable crash in TransportSecurityInfo used for SSL can be triggered by data stored in the local cache in the user profile directory. This issue is only exploitable in combination with another vulnerability allowing an attacker to write data into the local cache or from locally installed malware. This issue also triggers a non-exploitable startup crash for users switching between the Nightly and Release versions of Firefox if the same profile is used. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.2.1, Firefox ESR < 60.2.1, and Firefox < 62.0.2.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-12385?

It affects 11 products.


Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firefox Esr, Mozilla Thunderbird, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Aus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Eus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Tus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-12385?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-12385 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-12385 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-12385 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-12385 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 18 Oct 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-12385 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12385/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12385/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-12385
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12385
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-12385

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12385/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.