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Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

CVE-2009-0356

Medium
5.1/10

Summary

Mozilla Firefox before 3.0.6 and SeaMonkey do not block links to the (1) about:plugins and (2) about:config URIs from .desktop files, which allows user-assisted remote attackers to bypass the Same Origin Policy and execute arbitrary code with chrome privileges via vectors involving the URL field in a Desktop Entry section of a .desktop file, related to representation of about: URIs as jar:file:// URIs. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2008-4582.

  • HIGH
  • NETWORK
  • NONE
  • PARTIAL
  • PARTIAL
  • PARTIAL

CWE-59 - Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

'Improper link resolution before file access' occurs when software accesses a file resource but fails to verify that the file isn't a link or shortcut to another file. An attacker can potentially gain access to arbitrary files and from there the impact can vary, depending on the application, from sensitive data exposure to remote code execution.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published