CVE-2012-3990

Use-after-free vulnerability in the IME State Manager implementation 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 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, related to the nsIContent::GetNameSpaceID function.

Published: 2012-10-10 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2012-3990 is rated High Risk (69.4/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 6.07%, 90th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. Mandatory action: 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-2012-3990

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 5.47% 6.07% +0.60%
2 2025-03-30 11.51% 5.47% -6.04%
3 2025-03-29 11.51%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-3990

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-2012-3990

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-3990

vendor priority summary link
gentoo high CVE-2012-3990: 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-2012-3990
redhat critical https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-3990
suse medium CVE-2012-3990 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-2012-3990/
ubuntu medium CVE-2012-3990 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-2012-3990

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-3990

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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux: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-2012-3990

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-10/msg00010.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
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/51181 Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/55318 Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2565 Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2569 Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2572 Third Party Advisory
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2012:163 Third Party Advisory
http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2012/mfsa2012-87.html Vendor Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1611-1 Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=787704 Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/79172 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A16642 Third Party Advisory
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