CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-4052 — The Firefox updater created a directory writable by non-privileged users

Medium CVSS 6.5

The Firefox updater created a directory writable by non-privileged users. When uninstalling Firefox, any files in that directory would be recursively deleted with the permissions of the uninstalling user account. This could be combined with creation of a junction (a form of symbolic link) to allow arbitrary file deletion controlled by the non-privileged user. *This bug only affects Firefox on Windows. Other operating systems are unaffected.* This vulnerability affects Firefox < 116, Firefox ESR < 115.1, and Thunderbird < 115.1.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-01
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
browser
Weaknesses
CWE-59

Affected products

  • mozilla / firefox
  • mozilla / firefox_esr

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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