CVE-2023-5174

If Windows failed to duplicate a handle during process creation, the sandbox code may have inadvertently freed a pointer twice, resulting in a use-after-free and a potentially exploitable crash. This bug only affects Firefox on Windows when run in non-standard configurations (such as using runas). Other operating systems are unaffected. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 118, Firefox ESR < 115.3, and Thunderbird < 115.3.

Weakness

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory “belongs” to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1848454
• https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2023-41/
• https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2023-42/
• https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2023-43/
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1848454
• https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2023-41/
• https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2023-42/
• https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2023-43/