CVE-2018-18505 Auth bypass in Firefox
Insufficient IPC authentication allows sandbox escape via message validation flaws, enabling code execution and privilege escalation in Firefox and Thunderbird.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2018-18505?
CVE-2018-18505 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 5 Feb 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
An earlier fix for an Inter-process Communication (IPC) vulnerability, CVE-2011-3079, added authentication to communication between IPC endpoints and server parents during IPC process creation. This authentication is insufficient for channels created after the IPC process is started, leading to the authentication not being correctly applied to later channels. This could allow for a sandbox escape through IPC channels due to lack of message validation in the listener process. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.5, Firefox ESR < 60.5, and Firefox < 65.
Weakness: CWE-287
Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-18505?
It affects 10 products.
Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server and 4 more.
How do I fix CVE-2018-18505?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2018-18505 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-18505 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2018-18505, GHSA-5g4g-56fq-mvwf, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-18505.