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CVE Record

CVE-2018-18501: Mozilla developers and community members reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 64 and Firefox ESR...

Mozilla developers and community members reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 64 and Firefox ESR 60.4. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort that some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.5, Firefox ESR < 60.5, and Firefox < 65.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2018-18501 covers Mozilla memory-safety defects in older Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird releases. Mozilla reported memory corruption evidence and presumed that some bugs could be exploited to run arbitrary code. This is mainly a legacy exposure issue today: unsupported or unpatched browser and mail-client installations carry the business risk.

Executive priority

Treat this as high priority where legacy Mozilla software remains in use. It is old, but the impact is serious and remediation should be straightforward through upgrades or removal. No source in the bundle confirms active exploitation.

Technical view

The issue affects Firefox before 65, Firefox ESR before 60.5, and Thunderbird before 60.5. The bundled CVE description does not provide a single root cause, CWE, CVSS score, or exploit detail; it groups memory-safety bugs observed in Firefox 64 and ESR 60.4 with potential code-execution impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely on endpoints, virtual desktops, servers, or golden images still running affected Mozilla packages or old Linux distribution builds. Organizations with managed ESR or Thunderbird deployments from 2019 should verify update status rather than assume removal.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. Mozilla’s statement supports potential arbitrary code execution with enough effort, but the provided sources do not prove exploitation in the wild.

Researcher notes

This CVE is an aggregate Mozilla memory-safety advisory, not a narrow bug with detailed primitives in the provided bundle. Avoid overclaiming exploitability beyond Mozilla’s arbitrary-code-execution presumption and verify product-specific fixed versions through the relevant Mozilla and distribution advisories.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade Firefox to 65 or later where still applicable.
  • Upgrade Firefox ESR to 60.5 or later where still applicable.
  • Upgrade Thunderbird to 60.5 or later where still applicable.
  • Apply vendor distribution security updates for packaged Mozilla builds.
  • Retire unsupported systems that cannot receive Mozilla or OS security updates.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird versions across managed endpoints.
  • Compare installed versions against Firefox 65, ESR 60.5, and Thunderbird 60.5.
  • Check Linux package advisory status for Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, or Gentoo builds.
  • Confirm vulnerability scanners no longer report CVE-2018-18501 after updates.
  • Review software images for bundled legacy Mozilla installations.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
10

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

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ATT&CK lookup starting points

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description · low confidence lookup

Execution behavior lookup

The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

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CVE-2018-18501 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
16Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
MozillaThunderbirdunspecifiedListed
MozillaFirefox ESRunspecifiedListed
MozillaFirefoxunspecifiedListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.