CVE-2023-4579 | Persisted search terms were formatted as URLs

Search queries in the default search engine could appear to have been the currently navigated URL if the search query itself was a well formed URL. This could have led to a site spoofing another if it had been maliciously set as the default search engine. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 117.

Published: 2023-09-11 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-4579 is rated Low Risk (23/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.38%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2023-4579

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 2026-06-15 0.17% 0.38% +0.21%
2 2026-05-16 0.13% 0.17% +0.04%
3 2026-04-26 — 0.13% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-4579

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.1 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.6 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-4579

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-4579

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-4579: 1 source package rows (firefox); 75 state rows across 3 repos (3.18-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 0, open 75. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-4579
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-4579 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (firefox), 1 status rows across 1 suites (sid): resolved 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-4579
gentoo high CVE-2023-4579: 1 GLSA(s) (202401-10), 2 atom(s) (www-client/firefox, www-client/firefox-bin); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-4579
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-4579 medium priority: Ubuntu including 8 source packages (firefox, mozjs102, …), 72 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 38, ignored 25, not-affected 6, needs-triage 2, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-4579

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-4579

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mozilla firefox < 117.0 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:firefox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-4579

cvelogic Threat Intelligence