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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2018-5181 json

If a URL using the "file:" protocol is dragged and dropped onto an open tab that is running in a different child process the tab will open…

published 2018-06-11 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-16966

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.4%
EPSS 2.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 84%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

If a URL using the "file:" protocol is dragged and dropped onto an open tab that is running in a different child process the tab will open a local file corresponding to the dropped URL, contrary to policy. One way to make the target tab open more reliably in a separate process is to open it with the "noopener" keyword. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 60.

Patch / fix

  • Mozilla Firefox 60
  • firefox Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 60.0+build2-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • firefox Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 60.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
  • firefox Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 60.0+build2-0ubuntu1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-5181

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

  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +17 more 68.2.0-109.95.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:2872-1

  • firefox-esr openSUSE Tumbleweed 128.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Tumbleweed 92.0-1.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:14572-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10600-1

  • firefox Arch Linux 60.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-693

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-2018-5181 updated cvss 7.5

Mozilla: Local file can be displayed in noopener tab through drag and drop of hyperlink

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 firefox, thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 firefox, 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

2.38% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 84% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.mozilla.org https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1424107 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Mozilla Firefox

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.