# CVE-2020-15654: Denial of service in Firefox

> A malicious website can cause a browser hang via CSS, making the UI appear unresponsive and preventing user interaction with dialogs.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Aug 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-8j7j-8w2r-72pq, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-15654

## What is CVE-2020-15654?

CVE-2020-15654 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 10 Aug 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

When in an endless loop, a website specifying a custom cursor using CSS could make it look like the user is interacting with the user interface, when they are not. This could lead to a perceived broken state, especially when interactions with existing browser dialogs and warnings do not work. This vulnerability affects Firefox ESR < 78.1, Firefox < 79, and Thunderbird < 78.1.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-15654?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firefox Esr, Mozilla Thunderbird.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-15654?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-15654 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-15654 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-2020-15654 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-15654 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 10 Aug 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-15654 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-2020-15654/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15654/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-15654
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-15654
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-15654

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15654/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.