Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2013-1690

Firefox Denial of Service

Mozilla / Firefox

Watch CVE-2013-1690 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 8.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
69.0%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2013-1690 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Mozilla Firefox and 3 other products. Mozilla Firefox before 22.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.7, Thunderbird before 17.0.7, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

Mozilla / Firefox.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Firefox Denial of Service

Mozilla Firefox before 22.0, Firefox ESR 17.x before 17.0.7, Thunderbird before 17.0.7, and Thunderbird ESR 17.x before 17.0.7 do not properly handle onreadystatechange events in conjunction with page reloading, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site that triggers an attempt to execute data at an unmapped memory location.

View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
26 Jun 2013
Exploitation Reported
28 Mar 2022
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required

Tags

metasploit cisa

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2013-1690
  • USN-1890-1 ubuntu.com · Vendor Advisory http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1890-1
  • RHSA-2013:0982 rhn.redhat.com · Vendor Advisory http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0982.html
  • SUSE-SU-2013:1153 lists.opensuse.org · Vendor Advisory http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-07/msg00011...
  • SUSE-SU-2013:1152 lists.opensuse.org · Vendor Advisory http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-07/msg00010...
  • RHSA-2013:0981 rhn.redhat.com · Vendor Advisory http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0981.html
  • USN-1891-1 ubuntu.com · Vendor Advisory http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1891-1
  • openSUSE-SU-2013:1141 lists.opensuse.org · Vendor Advisory http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-07/msg00004...
  • DSA-2716 debian.org · Vendor Advisory http://www.debian.org/security/2013/dsa-2716
  • openSUSE-SU-2013:1142 lists.opensuse.org · Vendor Advisory http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-07/msg00005...
  • openSUSE-SU-2013:1140 lists.opensuse.org · Vendor Advisory http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-07/msg00003...
  • DSA-2720 debian.org · Vendor Advisory http://www.debian.org/security/2013/dsa-2720
  • openSUSE-SU-2013:1143 lists.opensuse.org · Vendor Advisory http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-07/msg00006...
  • oval:org.mitre.oval:def:16996 oval.cisecurity.org · VDB Entry https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.m...
  • 60778 securityfocus.com · VDB Entry http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/60778
  • bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi bugzilla.mozilla.org · CVE Record https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=857883
  • mozilla.org/security/announce/2013/mfsa2013-53.html mozilla.org · CVE Record http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2013/mfsa2013-53.html
  • bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi bugzilla.mozilla.org · CVE Record https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=901365

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 28 Mar 2022

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

Recorded 28 Apr 2025

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2022-03-28 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Metasploit https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/browser/mozilla_firefox_onreadystatechange.rb 28 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

8.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

69.0%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer CWE-119

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 8.8 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 9.3 High

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

mozilla_firefox_onreadystatechange

metasploit · Created Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2013-1690

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 15:02 UTC

    Metasploit module available

    Exploit module available

  2. 15:02 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  4. 01:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2013-1690

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2013-1690",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 8.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.69021,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}