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CVE-2012-4181· NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

Use-after-free vulnerability in the nsSMILAnimationController::DoSample function in Mozilla Firefox before 16.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.

Use-after-free vulnerability in the nsSMILAnimationController::DoSample function in Mozilla Firefox before 16.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.0.8, Thunderbird before 16.0, Thunderbird ESR 10.x before 10.0.8, and SeaMonkey before 2.13 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (heap memory corruption) via unspecified vectors.

CriticalCVSS 9.3 · v2.0—No exploit Fix available
Published
Oct 10, 2012
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
4.8% · 92th percentile
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Report tools

JSON

Action score

38

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
37 / 40 · 9.3 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 4.8%

Affected systems

VendorProduct
mozillafirefox
mozillathunderbird esr
mozillathunderbird
mozillaseamonkey
canonicalubuntu linux
redhatenterprise linux desktop
redhatenterprise linux eus
redhatenterprise linux server
redhatenterprise linux workstation

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • canonical ubuntu linux10.04
  • canonical ubuntu linux11.04
  • canonical ubuntu linux11.10
  • canonical ubuntu linux12.04
  • mozilla firefoxbefore 10.0.8
  • mozilla firefoxbefore 16.0
  • mozilla seamonkeybefore 2.13
  • mozilla thunderbirdbefore 16.0
  • mozilla thunderbird esrbefore 10.0.8
  • redhat enterprise linux desktop5.0
  • redhat enterprise linux desktop6.0
  • redhat enterprise linux eus6.3
  • redhat enterprise linux server5.0
  • redhat enterprise linux server6.0
  • redhat enterprise linux workstation5.0
  • redhat enterprise linux workstation6.0

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientfirefoxbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientfirefox-debuginfobefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientthunderbirdbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientthunderbird-debuginfobefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientxulrunnerbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientxulrunner-debuginfobefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationxulrunner-develbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el5_80:10.0.8-1.el5_8
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientfirefoxbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientfirefox-debuginfobefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientthunderbirdbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientthunderbird-debuginfobefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientxulrunnerbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientxulrunner-debuginfobefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::clientxulrunner-develbefore 0:10.0.8-1.el6_30:10.0.8-1.el6_3

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2010-3765Mozilla Firefox 3.5.x through 3.5.14 and 3.6.x through 3.6.11, Thunderbird 3.1.6 before 3.1.6 and 3.0.x before 3.0.10, and SeaMonkey 2.x befKEV
    94Now
  • CVE-2019-11708Insufficient vetting of parameters passed with the Prompt:Open IPC message between child and parent processes can result in the non-sandboxeKEV
    87Now
  • CVE-2015-4495The PDF reader in Mozilla Firefox before 39.0.3, Firefox ESR 38.x before 38.1.1, and Firefox OS before 2.2 allows remote attackers to bypassKEV
    86Now
  • CVE-2013-1690Mozilla Firefox before 22.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.7, Thunderbird before 17.0.7, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before 17.0.7 do not properKEV
    86Now
  • CVE-2019-17026Incorrect alias information in IonMonkey JIT compiler for setting array elements could lead to a type confusion.KEV
    79This week
  • CVE-2024-9680An attacker was able to achieve code execution in the content process by exploiting a use-after-free in Animation timelines.KEV
    76This week

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
red hat:firefox0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:firefox-debuginfo0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:thunderbird0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:thunderbird-debuginfo0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:xulrunner0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:xulrunner-debuginfo0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:xulrunner-devel0:10.0.8-1.el5_8 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationPackage registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

    If successful

    Confidentiality
    C · data can be read
    Integrity
    C · data or configuration can be modified
    Availability
    C · the service can be disrupted
    Attack complexity
    M
    Confidentiality impact
    C
    Integrity impact
    C
    Availability impact
    C

    Weakness class (CWE)

    CWE-416 · Use After Free

    CVSS vector

    AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

    nvd-primary

    Root cause

    After a memory region is freed, another reference pointing to it is still used. By then, the same region may have been allocated for different data.

    A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

    Vulnerable

    c
    free(dev->buf);/* ... another thread is still running ... */process(dev->buf);

    Fixed

    c
    lock(&dev->lock);free(dev->buf);dev->buf = NULL;unlock(&dev->lock);

    Attack context

    MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

    MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

    Noroxi analysis

    No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

    We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

    We use this product, ask for help

    Change log

    1. Fix✗ → ✓

    For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

    References

    All records