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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2016-5291 json

A same-origin policy bypass with local shortcut files to load arbitrary local content from disk.

published 2018-06-11 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-6242

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 37%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A same-origin policy bypass with local shortcut files to load arbitrary local content from disk. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 45.5, Firefox ESR < 45.5, and Firefox < 50.

Patch / fix

  • Mozilla Thunderbird 45.5
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 45.5
  • Mozilla Firefox 50
  • firefox-esr Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 45.5.0esr-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-5291

  • firefox Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 50.0+build2-0ubuntu0.14.04.2
  • firefox Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 50.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.2
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:45.5.1+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:45.5.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-5291

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 5 45.5.0-1.el5_11
  • firefox RHEL 6 45.5.0-1.el6_8
  • firefox RHEL 7 45.5.0-1.el7_3

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2780

  • mozilla-nss SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +6 more 3.21.3-39.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +6 more 45.5.1esr-59.1
  • mozilla-nss SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12 +8 more 3.21.3-50.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12 +8 more 45.5.0esr-88.1
  • mozilla-nss SLES 11 SP2-LTSS 3.21.3-30.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES 11 SP2-LTSS 45.5.1esr-63.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:3105-1SUSE-SU-2016:3080-1SUSE-SU-2016:3014-1

  • firefox-esr openSUSE Tumbleweed 128.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Tumbleweed 50.1.0-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Tumbleweed 45.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird Package Hub 12 45.5.1-17.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:14572-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10071-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10230-1openSUSE-SU-2016:3019-1

  • firefox Arch Linux 50.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-72

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-2016-5291 updated cvss 6.1

Mozilla: Same-origin policy violation using local HTML file and saved shortcut file (MFSA 2016-89, MFSA 2016-90)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) firefox 45.5.0-1.el5_11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) firefox 45.5.0-1.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) firefox 45.5.0-1.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) firefox 45.5.0-1.el5_11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8
    +9 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) firefox 45.5.0-1.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) firefox 45.5.0-1.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) firefox 45.5.0-1.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) firefox 45.5.0-1.el6_8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) firefox 45.5.0-1.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2780
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 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

Exploit prediction

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 37% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.mozilla.org https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1292159 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.9 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR
  • Mozilla Firefox

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

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.