A use-after-free vulnerability can occur in WebSockets when the object holding the connection is freed before the disconnection operation is finished. This results in an exploitable crash. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 52.3, Firefox ESR < 52.3, and Firefox < 55.
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 Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
| Link | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2017-19/ | vendor advisory |
| https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2017-20/ | vendor advisory |
| https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1374047 | issue tracking patch vendor advisory exploit |
| https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3968 | third party advisory vendor advisory |
| https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2017-18/ | vendor advisory |
| https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:2456 | third party advisory vendor advisory |
| https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:2534 | third party advisory vendor advisory |
| http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/100196 | vdb entry third party advisory |
| http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039124 | vdb entry third party advisory |
| https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201803-14 | third party advisory vendor advisory |
| https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3928 | third party advisory vendor advisory |