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Thunderbird CVE-2026-2777

CRITICAL
Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269)
2026-02-24 security@mozilla.org
Privilege Escalation Mozilla Thunderbird
9.8
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Send malicious message to Messaging System
  2. Exploit
    Trigger privilege escalation vulnerability
  3. Execution
    Gain elevated permissions
  4. Impact
    Execute arbitrary code with system privileges

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
CWE-269
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

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Exploitation Conditions

No special conditions — remote unauthenticated exploitation against default configurations of Firefox, Firefox ESR, Thunderbird, or Thunderbird ESR below specified versions.
Impact

CVSS 9.8. IPC privilege escalation bridges the gap between content process compromise and full browser compromise.
Exploit ScenarioDerived

After compromising the content process, attacker sends crafted IPC messages to escalate to the privileged parent process.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
Patch available 0.1% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 12, 2026

Privilege escalation in Firefox Messaging System component before 148. The inter-process messaging system allows escalation from content to privileged process.

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Mar 12, 2026 - 21:55 CVSS 9.8

Privilege escalation via Firefox IPC messaging system.

RemediationAI

Update Firefox to 148+.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

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Technical ContextAI · show details

CWE-269 in the Messaging System component. The IPC mechanism between content and privileged processes can be abused for privilege escalation.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SUSE CRITICAL
Red Hat 7.5 HIGH

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch released
Apr 10, 2026 - 08:30 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Feb 24, 2026 - 14:16 nvd
CRITICAL 9.8

DescriptionNVD

Privilege escalation in the Messaging System component. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 148, Firefox ESR < 115.33, Firefox ESR < 140.8, Thunderbird < 148, and Thunderbird < 140.8.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

A critical privilege escalation vulnerability in Firefox and Thunderbird messaging components poses significant risk to users who may inadvertently execute malicious code with elevated system permissions. Organizations relying on these applications for business communications face potential data theft, system compromise, and lateral movement threats until patches are deployed.

Business Impact: Severe
Compensating Controls

Disable Messaging System component in Firefox and Thunderbird configurations if business operations allow; restrict application execution to non-privileged user accounts only; implement application whitelisting to prevent untrusted script execution; segment messaging systems on isolated network zones; enforce strict email and attachment filtering at gateway level; disable JavaScript execution in mail clients; monitor process execution logs for anomalous privilege escalation attempts; consider temporary transition to alternative communication platforms until patching is complete.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.1%
Top 82% exploitable
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium
NVD CVE.org EPSS Vendor VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.1%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
CRITICAL severity
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Out-of-Cycle
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact
Very High

Priority Score

49
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +49
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Privilege Escalation HIGH

Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:esr:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:esr:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:thunderbird:*:*:*:*:esr:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:thunderbird:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*

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5.0 Apr 01

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CVE-2013-2566 MEDIUM POC
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Same weakness CWE-269 – Improper Privilege Management

View all
CVE-2017-5689 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2021-20021 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2017-12635 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2017-11467 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2019-1405 HIGH POC
7.8

Same technique Privilege Escalation

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CVE-2024-0012 CRITICAL POC
9.3
CVE-2025-47812 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2013-0422 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2013-0632 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2024-9474 MEDIUM POC
6.9

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Critical
Product Status
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container:2.1.3-6.61 Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container:2.1.3-7.27 Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container:2.1.3-6.52 Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/rt-os-container:2.1.3-7.63 Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/toolbox:13.2-9.16 Image SL-Micro Affected
Image SL-Micro-BYOS-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-GCE Affected
Image SLES12-SP5-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production Image SLES12-SP5-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS-Production Affected
Image SLES15-SP5-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP5-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP7-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP7-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS-Production Affected
SUSE Liberty Linux 8 Fixed

References

Advisories & patches
ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3338 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3339 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3361 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3491 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3492 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3493 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3494 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3495 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3496 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3497 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3515 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3516 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3517 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3976 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3978 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3979 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3980 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3981 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3982 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3983 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:3984 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:4022 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:4152 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:4260 ADVISORY https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:4432 ADVISORY https://vuldb.com/vuln/347566 ADVISORY https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-13/ ADVISORY https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-14/ ADVISORY https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-15/ ADVISORY https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-16/ ADVISORY https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-17/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:0812/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:0871/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:0880/ REF https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-2777 REF https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2015305 REF https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2442312 REF https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-2777.json

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