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Mozilla Firefox EUVDEUVD-2026-88930

| CVE-2026-100778 CRITICAL
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2026-09-29 mozilla GHSA-jm26-3479-fr7j
9.6
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: mozilla
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Attack ChainAIDerived

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

  1. Access
    Lure victim to crafted web page
  2. Delivery
    Malicious DOM/HTML triggers use-after-free
  3. Exploit
    Corrupt content-process memory
  4. Execution
    Escape sandbox to host
  5. Impact
    Execute code with full C/I/A impact

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 a victim using an unpatched Firefox (before 157, or ESR before 153.4/140.17/115.42) to load attacker-controlled web content that triggers the use-after-free in the DOM Core & HTML engine - no authentication or special product configuration is needed, and this affects default browser behavior. The primary limiting factor is user interaction (UI:R): the victim must navigate to or render the malicious page; there is no unauthenticated server-side or zero-click vector, and no public POC is available to lower the exploitation barrier.

Impact

This is a genuinely high-priority memory-corruption flaw. The CVSS 9.6 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) is credible and consistent with a use-after-free that produces a sandbox escape: the S:C (scope change) reflects escaping the content process to affect the host system, which is why this scores higher than the many 8.8 (S:U) sibling UAFs in the same Firefox batch (e.g. the DOM Core & HTML UAFs CVE-2026-100774/100785/100791). Exploitation is network-delivered (AV:N) via a crafted web page but requires victim interaction (UI:R) to visit that page, so it is not wormable/automatable. On the exploitation-signal side there is NO EPSS score, NO CISA KEV listing, and NO public POC provided; Mozilla self-reported this through MFSA advisories with no indication of in-the-wild use. So the severity is real and RCE-class, but current evidence points to no active exploitation - the priority comes from Firefox's ubiquity and the sandbox-escape impact, not from observed attacker activity. No conflicting signals in the CVSS vector itself; PR:N and AV:N are consistent with a drive-by web-content attack.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker hosts a malicious web page that drives Firefox's DOM Core & HTML code into a use-after-free; a victim simply visiting the page (UI:R) triggers memory corruption in the content process, which is then leveraged to escape the sandbox (S:C) and gain code execution on the host. No public exploit code or POC is identified at time of analysis, and no authentication is required (PR:N).

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
No patch listed yet 0.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 29, 2026

Use-after-free in Mozilla Firefox's DOM Core & HTML engine allows attacker-controlled web content to corrupt memory and escape the browser's content sandbox, potentially yielding code execution at higher privilege on the host. Affected are Firefox builds prior to 157 and ESR branches prior to 153.4, 140.17, and 115.42; the flaw is rated CVSS 9.6 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H), so no authentication or non-default configuration is required, but a victim must load or render a malicious page (UI:R). No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and the vulnerability has not been confirmed as actively exploited, though the scope-changed rating reflects that a successful trigger crosses a security boundary rather than merely crashing a content process.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade to Mozilla Firefox 157, Firefox ESR 153.4, Firefox ESR 140.17, or Firefox ESR 115.42 (choose the build matching your deployed channel); these versions are the exact fixes named in the vendor advisories https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-97/, https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-98/, https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-99/, and https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2026-100/. Because the defect lives in the DOM Core & HTML engine that every page depends on, there is no reliable configuration toggle that removes the attack surface: disabling JavaScript would block the script-driven trigger but breaks the majority of modern web applications and does not protect against parser-triggered paths, while merely raising site-isolation or content-process restrictions does not fix the underlying use-after-free and at best blunts post-corruption lateral movement. If immediate updating is impossible, restrict browsing to a curated allowlist of trusted sites, prefer higher-isolation configurations (strict content-process separation, hardened sandboxing, disabling unnecessary plugins and extensions), and monitor for unexpected browser-process crashes or child-process behavior changes as a rough compromise indicator - noting each of these reduces exposure but does not eliminate the flaw. Confirm patch state via the browser's own version page or your software inventory, and treat ESR 115.x deployments as requiring an explicit move to 115.42 or a supported newer ESR line rather than assuming end-of-life coverage. The upstream bug record is https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2068406.

Affects your stack

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

Technical ContextAI · show details

The root cause is CWE-416 (use-after-free) in the DOM: Core & HTML component, the code that parses and maintains the document object model inside Firefox's content process. A dangling reference to a freed DOM object can be reused by script-driven or parser-driven manipulation, producing memory corruption that, in a browser, is a classic path to arbitrary code execution within the sandboxed content process and - because the CVSS vector specifies S:C (scope changed) - an escape past that sandbox boundary. The CPE entry cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* uses a version wildcard, consistent with a defect present across the currently maintained release and ESR trains and fixed only at the listed branch points (Firefox 157, ESR 153.4, ESR 140.17, ESR 115.42). Associated tags of Use After Free, Memory Corruption, and Information Disclosure align with a memory-safety bug that may also leak data before or during corruption, and the flaw is tracked upstream in Mozilla bug 2068406 with advisories mfsa2026-97, -98, -99, and -100 covering the affected channels.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (mozilla) PRIMARY 9.6 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 9.6 CRITICAL

Web-delivered UAF needing only a page visit (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R); sandbox escape crosses the content-process boundary to the host, giving S:C with full C/I/A.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
Red Hat 7.5 HIGH

Primary rating from Vendor (mozilla).

CVSS VectorVendor: mozilla

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

Lifecycle Timeline

3
CVSS changed
Sep 29, 2026 - 17:22 NVD
9.6 (CRITICAL)
CVE Published
Sep 29, 2026 - 12:36 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)
CVE Published
Sep 29, 2026 - 12:36 cve.org
CRITICAL 9.6

DescriptionCVE.org

Sandbox escape due to use-after-free in the DOM: Core & HTML component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox ESR 153.4, Firefox 157, Firefox ESR 115.42, and Firefox ESR 140.17.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

A critical memory-corruption flaw in Mozilla Firefox's core rendering engine can allow a malicious web page to break out of the browser's content sandbox and execute code at the host level, meaning a single ordinary browsing session could be enough to compromise an endpoint. Because Firefox is widely deployed across the workforce and no vendor patch exists yet, every employee who browses the open internet from an unpatched Firefox build represents an unmitigated path into the corporate environment. Leadership should treat this as a near-term endpoint exposure with potential for credential theft, lateral movement, and data loss until remediated builds ship.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: mandate an alternative fully patched browser for untrusted internet browsing on affected hosts; enforce strict Enhanced Tracking Protection, site isolation, and disable unnecessary extensions/plugins; restrict privileged or administrative work to separate hardened systems; isolate high-risk browsing in virtual machines or a remote browser isolation service; apply secure web gateway and DNS filtering to block malicious content; deploy EDR detections for browser processes spawning unexpected child processes or performing host-level execution; and monitor the Mozilla security advisory and CISA KEV catalog daily for patched builds or confirmed exploitation.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.3%
Top 75% exploitable
Prevalence
Ubiquitous
Mozilla Firefox is one of the most widely deployed desktop browsers worldwide
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High

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 0.3%
Patch available No
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
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

48
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +48
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)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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-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-2016-1960 HIGH POC
8.8 Mar 13

Integer underflow in the nsHtml5TreeBuilder class in the HTML5 string parser in Mozilla Firefox before 45.0 and Firefox

CVE-2015-0816 MEDIUM POC
5.0 Apr 01

Mozilla Firefox before 37.0, Firefox ESR 31.x before 31.6, and Thunderbird before 31.6 do not properly restrict resource

CVE-2015-0802 MEDIUM POC
5.0 Apr 01

Mozilla Firefox before 37.0 relies on docshell type information instead of page principal information for Window.webidl

CVE-2013-2566 MEDIUM POC
5.9 Mar 15

The RC4 algorithm, as used in the TLS protocol and SSL protocol, has many single-byte biases, which makes it easier for

Vendor StatusVendor

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