CVE-2020-15659: Critical severity Mozilla Firefox vulnerability

Published Jul 28, 2020
·
Updated

Last updated 25 August 2025

Other sources

Mozilla developers and community members Kevin Brosnan, Alexandru Michis, Natalia Csoregi, Jason Kratzer, Christian Holler, Simon Giesecke, Luke Wagner reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 78. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code.

Mozilla

Mozilla developers and community members Natalia Csoregi, Simon Giesecke, Jason Kratzer, Christian Holler, and Luke Wagner reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 78 and Firefox ESR 78.0. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code.

Mozilla

Mozilla developers and community members reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 78 and Firefox ESR 78.0. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 79, Firefox ESR < 68.11, Firefox ESR < 78.1, Thunderbird < 68.11, and Thunderbird < 78.1.

Launchpad

Mozilla developers Jason Kratzer and Luke Wagner reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 78 and Firefox ESR 68.10. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code.

Mozilla developers Jason Kratzer and Luke Wagner reported memory safety bugs present in Thunderbird 68.10. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code.

Mozilla

Affected Software

18 affected componentsFixes available
Mozilla Firefox<79.0
Mozilla Firefox ESR<68.11
Mozilla Firefox ESR>=78.0<78.1.0
Mozilla Thunderbird<68.11
Mozilla Thunderbird>=78.0.1<78.1.0
openSUSE Leap=15.1
openSUSE Leap=15.2
Canonical Ubuntu Linux=16.04
Canonical Ubuntu Linux=18.04
Canonical Ubuntu Linux=20.04
Mozilla Thunderbird<68.11
68.11
Mozilla Thunderbird<78.1
78.1
Mozilla Firefox<79
79
Mozilla Firefox ESR<68.11
68.11
Mozilla Firefox ESR<78.1
78.1
debian/firefox
148.0.2-1
debian/firefox-esr
115.14.0esr-1~deb11u1140.8.0esr-1~deb11u1128.14.0esr-1~deb12u1140.8.0esr-1~deb12u1140.4.0esr-1~deb13u1140.8.0esr-1~deb13u1140.8.0esr-1
debian/thunderbird
1:115.12.0-1~deb11u11:140.8.0esr-1~deb11u11:140.6.0esr-1~deb12u11:140.8.0esr-1~deb12u11:140.6.0esr-1~deb13u11:140.8.0esr-1~deb13u11:140.8.0esr-1

Event History

Jul 28, 2020
CVE Published
via Mozilla·12:00 AM
Aug 10, 2020
CVE Published
via MITRE·05:43 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·05:43 PM
DescriptionWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·06:15 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software
Jan 11, 2024
Data Sourced
via Launchpad·11:43 PM
Description
Feb 24, 2026
Data Sourced
via Ubuntu·07:57 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Mar 12, 2026
Data Sourced
via Debian·08:11 PM
DescriptionAffected Software

Parent advisories

This vulnerability appears in the following advisories.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is CVE-2020-15659?

CVE-2020-15659 is a vulnerability in Thunderbird, Firefox, and Firefox ESR that allows for memory corruption.

2

How can this vulnerability be exploited?

This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote attacker triggering memory corruption, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.

3

Which versions of Thunderbird are affected?

Thunderbird versions up to 78.1 and 68.11 are affected by CVE-2020-15659.

4

Which versions of Firefox are affected?

Firefox versions up to 79 and Firefox ESR versions up to 68.11 are affected by CVE-2020-15659.

5

How can I fix CVE-2020-15659?

To fix CVE-2020-15659, it is recommended to update Thunderbird to version 78.2, Firefox to version 80, and Firefox ESR to version 68.12.

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