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Mozilla Firefox EUVDEUVD-2026-60751

| CVE-2026-74944 CRITICAL
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2026-08-18 mozilla GHSA-77j9-v7c9-544q
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
    Lure victim to malicious page
  2. Delivery
    Serve crafted HTML/JS
  3. Exploit
    Trigger DOM use-after-free
  4. Execution
    Reclaim freed object with controlled data
  5. Persist
    Corrupt memory in content process
  6. Impact
    Execute attacker code

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Memory lifecycle management
MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation

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 load attacker-controlled web content in an unpatched Firefox (before 154 / ESR 140.14 / ESR 153.1) - i.e., visiting a malicious site or rendering attacker-supplied HTML in an ad, iframe, or embedded view. The affected DOM: Core & HTML code path is reachable in default configurations with JavaScript enabled, so no special browser feature toggle is needed. Limiting factors: although the published CVSS vector states UI:N, in practice a user must navigate to or render the malicious content, and reliably exploiting a use-after-free demands heap grooming and typically an additional sandbox-escape to achieve impact beyond the content process; there is no authentication requirement (unauthenticated, PR:N).

Impact

The signals are mixed and worth weighing carefully. The reported CVSS 3.1 base score is 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N), which treats this as a trivially exploitable remote network flaw - but that vector is questionable for a browser DOM bug: real-world exploitation of a client-side use-after-free requires a victim to load attacker-controlled content, which realistically implies user interaction (UI:R) and non-trivial heap-grooming complexity (AC:H), so the true severity is likely lower than 9.8. Counterbalancing the high CVSS, EPSS is only 0.16% (5th percentile), there is no CISA KEV listing, and no public exploit is identified - so this is not currently an actively-exploited emergency. That said, browser memory-corruption bugs are a favored target for exploit developers and can be chained with a sandbox escape, so patching should not be deferred: any organization running Firefox at scale should roll the update promptly rather than waiting for a proof-of-concept to surface. Verify the vector discrepancy (CVSS UI:N vs. the practical need for a user to visit a page) against the Mozilla advisories before treating the 9.8 as literal.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker hosts a malicious web page (or injects malicious content into a compromised or ad-served frame) containing crafted HTML and JavaScript that manipulates DOM objects to free memory while a dangling reference remains, then reclaims the freed allocation with controlled data. When the victim's unpatched Firefox visits the page, the engine dereferences the stale pointer, giving the attacker memory corruption in the content process that can be developed into code execution. No public exploit is identified at time of analysis, so this scenario is currently theoretical for this specific CVE.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 20, 2026

Memory corruption via a use-after-free in Firefox's DOM: Core & HTML component allows a remote attacker to trigger dangling-pointer reuse in the browser engine, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution within the content process. All Firefox and Firefox ESR users on versions prior to Firefox 154, ESR 140.14, and ESR 153.1 are affected. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and EPSS is low (0.16%, 5th percentile), consistent with a freshly patched browser bug with no observed weaponization.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade to Firefox 154, Firefox ESR 140.14, or Firefox ESR 153.1 (or later) depending on your channel - this is the primary and complete fix. Enterprises on the ESR channel should note both ESR lines received fixes (140.14 and 153.1), so confirm which train your fleet runs and update accordingly; consult https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-74/ and the related mfsa2026-76 through -80 advisories for the exact build mapping. If immediate patching is not possible, the practical compensating control for a DOM use-after-free is to reduce exposure to untrusted web content: enforce Firefox's stricter/'Strict' Enhanced Tracking Protection and script controls, or deploy a policy that limits browsing to trusted sites, accepting the trade-off of reduced usability. Disabling JavaScript would substantially hinder exploitation but breaks most modern web applications and is rarely viable as a fleet-wide control, so it is only suitable for high-risk isolated systems.

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.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The flaw is a CWE-416 use-after-free in Gecko's DOM: Core & HTML implementation - the subsystem that builds and manages the in-memory DOM tree for HTML documents. Use-after-free occurs when the engine continues to reference heap memory for a DOM node or object after it has been freed, allowing an attacker who controls page content and scripting to reclaim that memory with attacker-influenced data. Because the affected code parses and manipulates untrusted web content, the vulnerable surface is reachable by any loaded page. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox confirms the desktop Firefox application family as the affected product; the same fix batch spans multiple Mozilla advisories (mfsa2026-74 through -80), indicating the issue was addressed across the release and ESR trains simultaneously.

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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
vuln.today AI 7.5 HIGH

Remote via web content but requires the victim to load a malicious page (UI:R) and reliable use-after-free exploitation needs heap grooming (AC:H); no privileges needed (PR:N), with high content-process impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE HIGH
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

3
CVSS changed
Aug 20, 2026 - 20:22 NVD
9.8 (CRITICAL)
CVE Published
Aug 18, 2026 - 12:23 nvd
CRITICAL 9.8
CVE Published
Aug 18, 2026 - 12:23 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionNVD

Use-after-free in the DOM: Core & HTML component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 154, Firefox ESR 140.14, and Firefox ESR 153.1.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

CVE-2026-74944 in Firefox creates a critical execution risk for organizations using the browser, affecting all versions prior to Firefox 154 and Firefox ESR versions prior to 140.14 and 153.1. Employees browsing the internet could enable attackers to compromise their systems and access sensitive corporate data without any interaction beyond visiting a malicious website. Organizations must immediately deploy patched versions to eliminate this endpoint security risk.

Business Impact: Severe
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 95% exploitable
Prevalence
High
Firefox is a major desktop browser with broad enterprise and consumer deployment
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

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 0.2%
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

Use-after-free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to access memory through a pointer after that memory has been deallocated.

Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
CVE-2015-4495 HIGH POC
8.8 Aug 08

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

CVE-2013-1690 HIGH POC
8.8 Jun 26

Mozilla Firefox before 22.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.7, Thunderbird before 17.0.7, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before

CVE-2013-0758 CRITICAL POC
9.3 Jan 13

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

CVE-2013-0753 CRITICAL POC
9.3 Jan 13

Use-after-free vulnerability in the serializeToStream implementation in the XMLSerializer component in Mozilla Firefox b

CVE-2012-3993 CRITICAL POC
9.3 Oct 10

The Chrome Object Wrapper (COW) implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 16.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.0.8, Thunderbi

CVE-2013-1710 CRITICAL POC
10.0 Aug 07

The crypto.generateCRMFRequest function in Mozilla Firefox before 23.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.8, Thunderbird befo

CVE-2017-3823 HIGH POC
8.8 Feb 01

An issue was discovered in the Cisco WebEx Extension before 1.0.7 on Google Chrome, the ActiveTouch General Plugin Conta

CVE-2014-8636 HIGH POC
7.5 Jan 14

The XrayWrapper implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 35.0 and SeaMonkey before 2.32 does not properly interact with

CVE-2013-0757 CRITICAL POC
9.3 Jan 13

The Chrome Object Wrapper (COW) implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 18.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.2, Thunderbi

CVE-2014-1510 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Mar 19

The Web IDL implementation in Mozilla Firefox before 28.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.4, Thunderbird before 24.4, and Se

CVE-2014-1511 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Mar 19

Mozilla Firefox before 28.0, Firefox ESR 24.x before 24.4, Thunderbird before 24.4, and SeaMonkey before 2.25 allow remo

CVE-2013-0643 HIGH
8.8 Feb 27

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

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
Container suse/kiosk/firefox-esr:140.14-75.12 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS Fixed

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