CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-9816

Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type ('Type Confusion')

Published: Jul 23, 2019 | Modified: Aug 24, 2020
CVSS 3.x
5.9
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CVSS 2.x
4.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

A possible vulnerability exists where type confusion can occur when manipulating JavaScript objects in object groups, allowing for the bypassing of security checks within these groups. Note: this vulnerability has only been demonstrated with UnboxedObjects, which are disabled by default on all supported releases.. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.7, Firefox < 67, and Firefox ESR < 60.7.

Weakness

The product allocates or initializes a resource such as a pointer, object, or variable using one type, but it later accesses that resource using a type that is incompatible with the original type.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Firefox Mozilla * 67.0 (excluding)
Firefox_esr Mozilla * 60.7 (excluding)
Thunderbird Mozilla * 60.7 (excluding)

Extended Description

When the product accesses the resource using an incompatible type, this could trigger logical errors because the resource does not have expected properties. In languages without memory safety, such as C and C++, type confusion can lead to out-of-bounds memory access. While this weakness is frequently associated with unions when parsing data with many different embedded object types in C, it can be present in any application that can interpret the same variable or memory location in multiple ways. This weakness is not unique to C and C++. For example, errors in PHP applications can be triggered by providing array parameters when scalars are expected, or vice versa. Languages such as Perl, which perform automatic conversion of a variable of one type when it is accessed as if it were another type, can also contain these issues.

References