CVE-2012-3988

Use-after-free vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox before 16.0, Firefox ESR 10.x before 10.0.8, Thunderbird before 16.0, Thunderbird ESR 10.x before 10.0.8, and SeaMonkey before 2.13 might allow user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors involving use of mozRequestFullScreen to enter full-screen mode, and use of the history.back method for backwards history navigation.

Published: 2012-10-10 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2012-3988 is rated High Risk (68.4/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.99%). High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2012-3988

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-09-26 3.58% 3.99% +0.41%
2 2025-03-30 9.94% 3.58% -6.36%
3 2025-03-29 — 9.94% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-3988

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2012-3988

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-3988

vendor priority summary link
gentoo high CVE-2012-3988: 1 GLSA(s) (201301-01), 14 atom(s) (dev-libs/nss, mail-client/mozilla-thunderbird, …); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-3988
redhat critical — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-3988
suse medium CVE-2012-3988 severity moderate: SUSE including 71 source package names (MozillaFirefox, MozillaFirefox-10.0.9-0.3.1, …), 122 product×package rows across 43 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 6, … (43 product lines)): Fixed 91, Known Not Affected 31. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-3988/
ubuntu medium CVE-2012-3988 medium priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (firefox, seamonkey, thunderbird, xulrunner-1.9.2), 36 status rows across 9 suites (hardy, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, upstream): released 17, DNE 9, ignored 9, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-3988

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-3988

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mozilla firefox < 10.0.8 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mozilla thunderbird_esr < 10.0.8 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:thunderbird_esr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mozilla firefox < 16.0 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mozilla thunderbird < 16.0 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:thunderbird:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mozilla seamonkey < 2.13 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:seamonkey:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 10.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:10.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 11.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:11.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 11.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:11.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 5.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_eus 6.3 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_eus:6.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 5.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 5.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse linux_enterprise_desktop 10 cpe:2.3:o:suse:linux_enterprise_desktop:10:sp4:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse linux_enterprise_desktop 11 cpe:2.3:o:suse:linux_enterprise_desktop:11:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse linux_enterprise_sdk 10 cpe:2.3:o:suse:linux_enterprise_sdk:10:sp4:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse linux_enterprise_server 10 cpe:2.3:o:suse:linux_enterprise_server:10:sp4:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse linux_enterprise_server 11 cpe:2.3:o:suse:linux_enterprise_server:11:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse linux_enterprise_server 11 cpe:2.3:o:suse:linux_enterprise_server:11:sp3:*:*:*:vmware:*:*

References for CVE-2012-3988

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-10/msg00010.html Third Party Advisory
http://osvdb.org/86109 Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1351.html Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/50856 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/50892 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/50904 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/50935 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/50936 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/50984 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/55318 Third Party Advisory
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2012:163 Third Party Advisory
http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2012/mfsa2012-79.html Vendor Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1611-1 Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=725770 Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/79149 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A16334 Third Party Advisory
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