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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2018-12383 json

If a user saved passwords before Firefox 58 and then later set a master password, an unencrypted copy of these passwords is still accessibl…

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-4357

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 40%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

If a user saved passwords before Firefox 58 and then later set a master password, an unencrypted copy of these passwords is still accessible. This is because the older stored password file was not deleted when the data was copied to a new format starting in Firefox 58. The new master password is added only on the new file. This could allow the exposure of stored password data outside of user expectations. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 62, Firefox ESR < 60.2.1, and Thunderbird < 60.2.1.

Patch / fix

  • Mozilla Firefox 62
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR 60.2.1
  • Mozilla Thunderbird 60.2.1
  • firefox-esr Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 60.2.1esr-1
  • thunderbird Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:60.2.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12383

  • firefox Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 62.0+build2-0ubuntu0.14.04.3
  • firefox Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 62.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.3
  • firefox Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 62.0+build2-0ubuntu0.18.04.3
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:60.2.1+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.2
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:60.2.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.4
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:60.2.1+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-12383

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 7 60.2.1-4.el7_5
  • thunderbird RHEL 6 60.2.1-5.el6
  • firefox RHEL 6 60.2.1-1.el6
  • firefox RHEL 7 60.2.1-1.el7_5

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:3458RHSA-2018:3403RHSA-2018:2834RHSA-2018:2835

  • apache2-mod_nss SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 7 +7 more 1.0.14-19.6.3
  • mozilla-nss SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP4 +12 more 3.36.4-58.15.3
  • mozilla-nspr SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP4 +12 more 4.19-19.3.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP4 +12 more 60.2.2esr-109.46.1
  • MozillaFirefox-branding-SLE SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP4 +10 more 60-32.3.1
  • MozillaFirefox SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 60.2.2-3.13.3
  • MozillaFirefox-branding-SLE SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 60-4.5.3
  • MozillaThunderbird SLE Workstation Extension 15 60.2.1-3.13.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:3591-2SUSE-SU-2018:3591-1SUSE-SU-2018:3476-1SUSE-SU-2018:3247-1

  • firefox-esr openSUSE Tumbleweed 128.5.1-1.1
  • MozillaFirefox openSUSE Tumbleweed 92.0-1.2
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Tumbleweed 91.1.1-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird Package Hub 12 60.3.0-74.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:14572-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10600-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10601-1openSUSE-SU-2018:3687-1

  • thunderbird Arch Linux 60.2.1-1

arch linux advisories AVG-782

Is CVE-2018-12383 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2018-12383 updated cvss 5.5

Mozilla: Setting a master password post-Firefox 58 does not delete unencrypted previously stored passwords

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 thunderbird
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5, thunderbird 60.2.1-4.el7_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2835
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6, thunderbird 60.2.1-5.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2834
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2835
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) thunderbird 60.2.1-4.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:3458
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2834
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2835
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6, thunderbird 60.2.1-5.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2834
show 6 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5, thunderbird 60.2.1-4.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2835
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6, thunderbird 60.2.1-5.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2834
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5, thunderbird 60.2.1-4.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2835
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) firefox 60.2.1-1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2834
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) firefox 60.2.1-1.el7_5
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate against this flaw, examine user profile directories for the presence of both `key3.db` and `key4.db` files. If both are present, `key3.db` should be deleted.” RHSA-2018:2835
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 firefox
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

Exploit prediction

0.46% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.mozilla.org https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1475775 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Mozilla Firefox ESR
  • Mozilla Thunderbird

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-522 Insufficiently Protected Credentials

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.