USN-701-2: Thunderbird vulnerabilities

6 January 2009

Thunderbird vulnerabilities

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Releases

Packages

Details

Several flaws were discovered in the browser engine. If a user had Javascript
enabled, these problems could allow an attacker to crash Thunderbird and
possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2008-5500)

Boris Zbarsky discovered that the same-origin check in Thunderbird could be
bypassed by utilizing XBL-bindings. If a user had Javascript enabled, an
attacker could exploit this to read data from other domains. (CVE-2008-5503)

Marius Schilder discovered that Thunderbird did not properly handle redirects
to an outside domain when an XMLHttpRequest was made to a same-origin resource.
When Javascript is enabled, it's possible that sensitive information could be
revealed in the XMLHttpRequest response. (CVE-2008-5506)

Chris Evans discovered that Thunderbird did not properly protect a user's data
when accessing a same-domain Javascript URL that is redirected to an unparsable
Javascript off-site resource. If a user were tricked into opening a malicious
website and had Javascript enabled, an attacker may be able to steal a limited
amount of private data. (CVE-2008-5507)

Chip Salzenberg, Justin Schuh, Tom Cross, and Peter William discovered
Thunderbird did not properly parse URLs when processing certain control
characters. (CVE-2008-5508)

Several flaws were discovered in the Javascript engine. If a user were tricked
into opening a malicious website and had Javascript enabled, an attacker could
exploit this to execute arbitrary Javascript code within the context of another
website or with chrome privileges. (CVE-2008-5511, CVE-2008-5512)

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 6.06

After a standard system upgrade you need to restart Thunderbird to effect
the necessary changes.