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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2021-23995 json

When Responsive Design Mode was enabled, it used references to objects that were previously freed.

published 2021-06-24 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-10915

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 67%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

When Responsive Design Mode was enabled, it used references to objects that were previously freed. We presume that with enough effort this could have been exploited to run arbitrary code. This vulnerability affects Firefox ESR < 78.10, Thunderbird < 78.10, and Firefox < 88.

Patch / fix

  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 78.10
  • Mozilla Thunderbird 78.10
  • Mozilla Firefox 88
  • firefox-esr Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 78.10.0esr-1
  • thunderbird Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:78.10.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-23995

  • firefox Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 88.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
  • firefox Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 88.0+build2-0ubuntu0.18.04.2
  • firefox Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 88.0+build2-0ubuntu0.20.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:78.11.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.2
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1:78.11.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-23995

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • firefox RHEL 7 78.10.0-1.el7_9
  • firefox RHEL 8 78.10.0-1.el8_3
  • thunderbird RHEL 8 78.10.0-1.el8_3
  • thunderbird RHEL 7 78.10.0-1.el7_9
  • firefox RHEL 8.1 EUS 78.10.0-1.el8_1
  • firefox RHEL 8.2 EUS 78.10.0-1.el8_2
  • thunderbird RHEL 8.1 EUS 78.10.0-1.el8_1
  • thunderbird RHEL 8.2 EUS 78.10.0-1.el8_2

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:1363RHSA-2021:1362RHSA-2021:1360RHSA-2021:1361RHSA-2021:1351RHSA-2021:1353

  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS +10 more 78.10.0-3.139.1
  • MozillaThunderbird SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP2 78.10.0-8.23.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +11 more 78.10.0-112.57.2
  • MozillaFirefox SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2 78.10.0-8.38.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES 11 SP4-LTSS 78.10.0-78.126.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:1433-1SUSE-SU-2021:1432-1SUSE-SU-2021:14708-1SUSE-SU-2021:1325-1SUSE-SU-2021:1307-1

  • firefox-esr openSUSE Tumbleweed 128.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Tumbleweed 92.0-1.2
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Tumbleweed 91.1.1-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Leap 15.2 78.10.0-lp152.2.41.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Leap 15.2 78.10.0-lp152.2.55.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:14572-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10600-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10601-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0644-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0621-1

  • firefox Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22, Alpine 3.21 +8 more 88.0-r0
  • librewolf Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +1 more 88.0-r0
  • firefox-esr Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22, Alpine 3.21 +9 more 78.10.0-r0
  • thunderbird Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22, Alpine 3.21 +5 more 91.3.2-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-23995

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • firefox Arch Linux 88.0-1
  • thunderbird Arch Linux 78.10.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1834AVG-1836

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-23995 updated cvss 8.8

Mozilla: Use-after-free in Responsive Design Mode

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 firefox, thunderbird
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) firefox 78.10.0-1.el8_3, thunderbird 78.10.0-1.el8_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1360
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v. 8.1) firefox 78.10.0-1.el8_1, thunderbird 78.10.0-1.el8_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1362
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v. 8.2) firefox 78.10.0-1.el8_2, thunderbird 78.10.0-1.el8_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1361
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) firefox 78.10.0-1.el7_9, thunderbird 78.10.0-1.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) firefox 78.10.0-1.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) firefox 78.10.0-1.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) firefox 78.10.0-1.el7_9, thunderbird 78.10.0-1.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) firefox 78.10.0-1.el7_9, thunderbird 78.10.0-1.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) firefox 78.10.0-1.el7_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1363

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.1 AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • Mozilla Firefox ESR
  • Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Mozilla Firefox

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-672 Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.