It has been identified that Mozilla Thunderbird improperly handles
Script objects while they are being executed, allowing them to be
modified during execution. JavaScript is disabled in Mozilla
Thunderbird by default. Mozilla Thunderbird has also been found to be
vulnerable to various potential buffer overflows. Lastly, the binary
release of Mozilla Thunderbird is vulnerable to a low exponent RSA
signature forgery issue because it is bundled with a vulnerable version
of NSS.
Impact
An attacker could entice a user to view a specially crafted email that
causes a buffer overflow and again executes arbitrary code or causes a
Denial of Service. An attacker could also entice a user to view an
email containing specially crafted JavaScript and execute arbitrary
code with the rights of the user running Mozilla Thunderbird. It is
important to note that JavaScript is off by default in Mozilla
Thunderbird, and enabling it is strongly discouraged. It is also
possible for an attacker to create SSL/TLS or email certificates that
would not be detected as invalid by the binary release of Mozilla
Thunderbird, raising the possibility for Man-in-the-Middle attacks.
Workaround
There is no known workaround at this time.
Resolution
Users upgrading to the following releases of Mozilla Thunderbird should
note that this version of Mozilla Thunderbird has been found to not
display certain messages in some cases.
All Mozilla Thunderbird users should upgrade to the
latest version:
Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.