CVE-2016-9079 — Mozilla Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird Use-After-Free Vulnerability

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

No fix documented by the sources we poll. That does not mean none exists: check the vendor advisory.

CISA required action CISA

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

US federal deadline: Jul 13, 2023 — passed 1190 day(s) ago

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Debian Debian Linux, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firefox ESR…).
2. Treat as emergency remediation: the CVE is in CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).
3. The attack is network-based and needs no privileges: restrict exposure (ACLs, VPN, WAF) until patched.
4. No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
5. EPSS ahead of 100% of scored CVEs: prioritize it in the patch queue.
6. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (memory corruption), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-416 · Use After Free

Other CVEs with this weakness →

CISA KEV details CISA

CISA lists a CVE once it has evidence of exploitation against real targets.

CISA records ransomware use only for campaigns it has confirmed, so “Unknown” means unrecorded, not ruled out. The deadline binds US federal agencies; for everyone else it is a reference date.

Public exploits, PoCs and detection templates

Public code that demonstrates or tests the flaw raises the odds of mass exploitation — and Nuclei templates help find vulnerable assets in your environment.

Warning: public PoCs are sometimes disguised malware. Use them only for authorized testing in an isolated environment. This portal does not host exploit code — it only points to the sources.

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 12, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 3 reading(s) · max 87.54%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

• Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).
• Correlate service crashes/restarts with inbound traffic; repeated crashes may indicate attempts.
• Hunt retroactively in logs from before Jun 22, 2023 (KEV listing): exploitation may have started earlier.

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

• 2026
• Affected products added · mozilla/firefox, mozilla/firefox esr, mozilla/thunderbird
  Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• SSVC assessment updated
  Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• Record published
  Oct 13, 2026
• Affected products added · debian/debian linux, redhat/enterprise linux, redhat/enterprise linux desktop, redhat/enterprise linux server, redhat/en
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• CVSS changed · 7.5
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• Source status changed · → Analyzed
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• Added to CISA KEV (detected)
  Oct 13, 2026 · CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
• Record created in this database
  Oct 13, 2026 · CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
• 2023
• Added to CISA KEV catalog
  Jun 21, 2023 · CISA
• 2018
• CVE published
  Jun 11, 2018 · mozilla

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

• 2× References added · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026
• 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

17 on the record

• bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi
  Exploit, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory, x_refsource_CONFIRM, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-92/
  Vendor Advisory, x_refsource_CONFIRM, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
  US Government Resource, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• github.com/advisories/GHSA-cmgc-v5fc-wx68
  GitHub Security Advisories
• security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-35
  Third Party Advisory, vendor-advisory, x_refsource_GENTOO, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42327
  GitHub Security Advisories
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42327/
  Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry, exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2850.html
  Third Party Advisory, vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.securityfocus.com/bid/94591
  Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry, vdb-entry, x_refsource_BID, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41151
  GitHub Security Advisories
• www.securitytracker.com/id/1037370
  Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry, vdb-entry, x_refsource_SECTRACK, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-15
  Third Party Advisory, vendor-advisory, x_refsource_GENTOO, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2843.html
  Third Party Advisory, vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-92
  GitHub Security Advisories
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41151/
  Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry, exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3730
  Third Party Advisory, vendor-advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9079
  GitHub Security Advisories

Elsewhere on this site

Related CVEs (same products)

• Medium CVE-2026-104046 Sssd: sssd: denial of service via incomplete identity provider authentication requests 8d
• Medium CVE-2026-104045 Sssd: sssd: denial of service via race condition in autofs responder 8d
• Medium CVE-2026-104047 Sssd: sssd: information disclosure via query injection in entra id lookups 8d
• High CVE-2026-104048 Sssd: sssd: authorization bypass via cross-domain username collision in hbac evaluation 8d
• Critical CVE-2026-106016 Mitigation bypass in the File Handling component 9d
• Medium CVE-2026-103500 Heap buffer overflow opening large email 15d

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

• No fixed version, patch or mitigation documented.
• No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
• No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
• No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2016-9079 is "Mozilla Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird Use-After-Free Vulnerability", rated High. It affects Debian Linux (Debian); versions are in the scope table. It is in CISA KEV: there is evidence of real-world exploitation. CVSS 7.5 describes technical severity. EPSS 87.54% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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