Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessHost malicious PDF link or attachment
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ExploitVictim opens PDF in Firefox viewer
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ExecutionTrigger uncontrolled resource consumption
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ImpactBrowser crash or hang
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Resource consumption limits
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the victim to open or render an attacker-crafted PDF document within Firefox's built-in PDF Viewer (pdf.js) component - this user interaction (UI:R in the CVSS vector) is the primary limiting factor. No authentication or elevated privileges are needed (PR:N), and delivery is remote over the network (e.g., a web page or email attachment). The vulnerability affects Firefox versions prior to 158.0.1; installing 158.0.1 or later removes exposure. Impact is limited to availability (browser crash/hang) with no confidentiality or integrity consequences, and the scope is unchanged (S:U), confining the effect to the browser process. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-severity denial-of-service issue, consistent with its CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5 (vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). The vector indicates a network-delivered attack requiring no privileges but DOES require user interaction (UI:R) - i.e., a victim must open or render a malicious PDF in Firefox's built-in PDF Viewer. Impact is availability-only (A:H, with C:N/I:N), aligning with CWE-400 (uncontrolled resource consumption) and the 'Denial Of Service' tag; there is no code execution, data disclosure, or integrity loss. Exploitation status: no public exploit identified at time of analysis - the CVE is NOT in CISA KEV and no POC is referenced in the provided sources. No EPSS score was supplied, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified from this data and must be treated as UNKNOWN rather than low. No SSVC decision data was provided. On balance this is a real but lower-priority issue: a browser crash/hang (not RCE) that is gated behind user interaction, in an already-patched product (Firefox 158.0.1). It merits routine patch prioritization rather than emergency response, with the caveat that Firefox's ubiquity raises aggregate exposure. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker hosts or emails a specially crafted PDF that triggers uncontrolled resource consumption in Firefox's built-in PDF Viewer. When the victim opens the PDF in Firefox (the required user interaction), the viewer exhausts memory or CPU, crashing or hanging the browser tab/process. No public proof-of-concept exploit is identified in the provided sources. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 20, 2026
Denial of service in Mozilla Firefox's built-in PDF Viewer (pdf.js) allows remote attackers to crash or hang the browser when a victim opens a crafted PDF document, either via a web page or an email attachment. The issue affects Firefox versions prior to 158.0.1 and is fixed in that release; exploitation requires user interaction (UI:R) and provides no confidentiality or integrity impact, only availability loss confined to the browser process. No public exploit code or confirmed active exploitation was identified at time of analysis, and no EPSS score was supplied.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: Firefox 158.0.1. Upgrade all Firefox installations to 158.0.1 or later as the primary fix, referencing Mozilla advisory mfsa2026-111 (https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-111/) and Bugzilla 2073714 for details. Where immediate upgrade is not possible, reduce exposure by disabling the built-in PDF viewer (set pdfjs.disabled to true in about:config) or configuring Firefox to download PDFs rather than render them in-browser, at the cost of losing in-browser PDF viewing; additionally, avoid opening untrusted PDF attachments or links in Firefox until patched.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability resides in pdf.js, the JavaScript-based PDF rendering engine embedded in Firefox, and is classified as CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), meaning a maliciously constructed PDF can drive the renderer into excessive CPU or memory use and ultimately crash or hang the browser. The CVSS 3.1 vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H confirms remote delivery with low attack complexity, no authentication or privileges required, but a mandatory user-interaction step: the victim must open the crafted PDF in Firefox's built-in viewer. Scope is unchanged, so the availability impact is contained to the browser process rather than the host. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* indicates the whole Firefox product line below the fixed release is in scope.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remote malicious PDF (AV:N), no privileges (PR:N) but victim must open the file (UI:R); CWE-400 DoS yields availability-only impact (A:H, C:N/I:N) within the browser process (S:U).
Primary rating from Vendor (mozilla).
CVSS VectorVendor: mozilla
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionCVE.org
Denial-of-service in the PDF Viewer component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 158.0.1.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
The 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
Mozilla Firefox before 22.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.7, Thunderbird before 17.0.7, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before
Mozilla Firefox before 18.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.0.12 and 17.x before 17.0.2, Thunderbird before 17.0.2, Thunderb
Use-after-free vulnerability in the serializeToStream implementation in the XMLSerializer component in Mozilla Firefox b
The Chrome Object Wrapper (COW) implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 16.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.0.8, Thunderbi
The crypto.generateCRMFRequest function in Mozilla Firefox before 23.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.8, Thunderbird befo
An issue was discovered in the Cisco WebEx Extension before 1.0.7 on Google Chrome, the ActiveTouch General Plugin Conta
The XrayWrapper implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 35.0 and SeaMonkey before 2.32 does not properly interact with
The Chrome Object Wrapper (COW) implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 18.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.2, Thunderbi
The Web IDL implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 28.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.4, Thunderbird before 24.4, and Se
Mozilla Firefox before 28.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.4, Thunderbird before 24.4, and SeaMonkey before 2.25 allow remo
The Firefox sandbox in Adobe Flash Player before 10.3.183.67 and 11.x before 11.6.602.171 on Windows and Mac OS X, and b
EUVD-2026-104982
GHSA-rv9p-g4pp-v57h
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB