Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 6.5

CVE-2023-4052 json

The Firefox updater created a directory writable by non-privileged users.

published 2023-08-01 3 y ago modified 2026-10-23 16 d ago also EUVD-2023-53943

cvss
6.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 53%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Firefox updater created a directory writable by non-privileged users. When uninstalling Firefox, any files in that directory would be recursively deleted with the permissions of the uninstalling user account. This could be combined with creation of a junction (a form of symbolic link) to allow arbitrary file deletion controlled by the non-privileged user. *This bug only affects Firefox on Windows. Other operating systems are unaffected.* This vulnerability affects Firefox < 116, Firefox ESR < 115.1, and Thunderbird < 115.1.

Patch / fix

  • Mozilla Firefox 116
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 115.1
  • Mozilla Thunderbird 115.1
  • MozillaThunderbird SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP4, SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5 +3 more 115.1.0-150200.8.127.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +9 more 115.1.0-150200.152.99.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +1 more 115.1.0-112.173.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS 115.1.0-150000.150.97.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:3228-1SUSE-SU-2023:3163-1SUSE-SU-2023:3162-1SUSE-SU-2023:3161-1

  • firefox-esr openSUSE Tumbleweed 128.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Tumbleweed 116.0.2-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Tumbleweed 115.2.0-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:14572-1openSUSE-SU-2024:13124-1openSUSE-SU-2024:13202-1

  • firefox-esr Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22, Alpine 3.21 +3 more 115.1.0-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-4052

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

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-2023-4052 updated cvss 6.1

Mozilla: File deletion and privilege escalation through Firefox uninstaller

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 firefox, thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 firefox, thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 firefox, thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 firefox, firefox-x11, thunderbird
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.71% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 53% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Affected products

  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR
  • Mozilla Thunderbird

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

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.