Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2016-9079

Firefox

Mozilla / Firefox · affected before 50.0.2

Watch CVE-2016-9079 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.5 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
87.5%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2016-9079 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Mozilla Firefox and 2 other products. A use-after-free vulnerability in SVG Animation has been discovered. An exploit built on this vulnerability has been...

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 affected before 50.0.2.

What should we do?

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

Overview

A use-after-free vulnerability in SVG Animation has been discovered

A use-after-free vulnerability in SVG Animation has been discovered. An exploit built on this vulnerability has been discovered in the wild targeting Firefox and Tor Browser users on Windows.

This vulnerability affects Firefox < 50.0.2, Firefox ESR < 45.5.1, and Thunderbird < 45.5.1.

Mozilla Affected
Firefox
Before 50.0.2
Mozilla Affected
Firefox ESR
Before 45.5.1
Mozilla Affected
Thunderbird
Before 45.5.1
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
11 Jun 2018
Exploitation Reported
22 Jun 2023
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

windows metasploit cisa

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-9079
  • DSA-3730 debian.org · Vendor Advisory https://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3730
  • RHSA-2016:2843 rhn.redhat.com · Vendor Advisory http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2843.html
  • GLSA-201701-35 security.gentoo.org · Vendor Advisory https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-35
  • RHSA-2016:2850 rhn.redhat.com · Vendor Advisory http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2850.html
  • GLSA-201701-15 security.gentoo.org · Vendor Advisory https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-15
  • 42327 exploit-db.com · Exploit https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42327/
  • 41151 exploit-db.com · Exploit https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41151/
  • 1037370 securitytracker.com · VDB Entry http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1037370
  • 94591 securityfocus.com · VDB Entry http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94591
  • mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-92 mozilla.org · CVE Record https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2016-92/
  • bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi bugzilla.mozilla.org · CVE Record https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1321066

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 22 Jun 2023

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 08 Feb 2017

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.

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Source Added
CISA First 2023-06-22 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/firefox_smil_uaf.rb 28 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.5 High

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

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

EPSS

87.5%

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

Weaknesses

Use After Free CWE-416

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 7.5 High

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

CVSS v2.0 5.0 Medium

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Potential Proof of Concepts

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

firefox_smil_uaf

metasploit · Created Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2016-9079

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. 21:00 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-2016-9079

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2016-9079",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.87536,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}