Skip to content
Fencer Intel
high 8.8

CVE-2016-1960 in the critical feed json

Integer underflow in the nsHtml5TreeBuilder class in the HTML5 string parser in Mozilla Firefox before 45.0 and Firefox ESR 38.x before 38.…

published 2016-03-13 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-3049

cvss
8.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
30.9%
EPSS 30.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 98%
public exploits
2
Exploit-DB

Summary

Integer underflow in the nsHtml5TreeBuilder class in the HTML5 string parser in Mozilla Firefox before 45.0 and Firefox ESR 38.x before 38.7 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (use-after-free) by leveraging mishandling of end tags, as demonstrated by incorrect SVG processing, aka ZDI-CAN-3545.

Patch / fix

  • firefox-esr Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 45.0esr-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-1960

  • firefox Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 45.0+build2-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:38.7.2+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:38.7.2+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-1960

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

  • thunderbird RHEL 5 PRODUCTIVITY, RHEL 5 38.7.0-1.el5_11
  • thunderbird RHEL 6 38.7.0-1.el6_7
  • thunderbird RHEL 7 38.7.0-1.el7_2
  • firefox RHEL 5 38.7.0-1.el5_11
  • firefox RHEL 6 38.7.0-1.el6_7
  • firefox RHEL 7 38.7.0-1.el7_2

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:0460RHSA-2016:0373

  • mozilla-nss SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +3 more 3.20.2-28.1
  • mozilla-nspr SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +3 more 4.12-24.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +3 more 38.7.0esr-37.3
  • mozilla-nss SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12 SP1 +5 more 3.20.2-40.1
  • mozilla-nspr SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12 SP1 +5 more 4.12-12.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12 SP1 +5 more 38.7.0esr-63.3
  • mozilla-nss SLES 11 SP2-LTSS 3.20.2-20.1
  • mozilla-nspr SLES 11 SP2-LTSS 4.12-19.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:0909-1SUSE-SU-2016:0777-1SUSE-SU-2016:0727-1

  • firefox-esr openSUSE Tumbleweed 128.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Tumbleweed 50.1.0-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Tumbleweed 45.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird Package Hub 12 45.2-6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:14572-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10071-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10230-1openSUSE-SU-2016:1769-1openSUSE-SU-2016:1778-1

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-2016-1960 updated cvss 6.8

Mozilla: Use-after-free in HTML5 string parser (MFSA 2016-23)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) firefox 38.7.0-1.el5_11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) firefox 38.7.0-1.el7_2, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) firefox 38.7.0-1.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) firefox 38.7.0-1.el5_11, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el5_11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0373
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Optional Productivity Applications (v. 5 server) thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el5_11
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0460
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) firefox 38.7.0-1.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) firefox 38.7.0-1.el7_2, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) firefox 38.7.0-1.el7_2, thunderbird 38.7.0-1.el7_2
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) firefox 38.7.0-1.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) firefox 38.7.0-1.el7_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0373

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

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-42484)

Exploit prediction

30.95% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-44294 Firefox 44.0.2 - ASM.JS JIT-Spray Remote Code Execution remote, 2018-03-16
  • EDB-42484 Mozilla Firefox < 45.0 - 'nsHtml5TreeBuilder' Use-After-Free (EMET 5.52 Bypass) remote, 2017-08-18

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 8.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

References

Sources

Fencer Intel 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.