Bug 560133 (CVE-2009-4629)

Summary: CVE-2009-4629 thunderbird/seamonkey: privacy compromise via DNS prefetching
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: Vincent Danen <vdanen>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Red Hat Product Security <security-response-team>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: gecko-bugs-nobody
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
URL: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2009-4629
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2021-10-19 09:09:36 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Vincent Danen 2010-01-29 23:01:43 UTC
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures assigned an identifier CVE-2009-4629 to
the following vulnerability:

Name: CVE-2009-4629
URL: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-4629
Assigned: 20100129
Reference: MISC: https://secure.grepular.com/DNS_Prefetch_Exposure_on_Thunderbird_and_Webmail
Reference: CONFIRM: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492196

Mozilla Necko, as used in Thunderbird 3.0.1, SeaMonkey, and other
applications, performs DNS prefetching even when the app type is
APP_TYPE_MAIL or APP_TYPE_EDITOR, which makes it easier for remote
attackers to determine the network location of the application's user
by logging DNS requests, as demonstrated by DNS requests triggered by
reading text/plain e-mail messages in Thunderbird.


Note that this issue would not affect Thunderbird or Seamonkey as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, or 5 as DNS prefetching was not implemented in the versions of Thunderbird or Seamonkey provided (no nsHTMLDNSPrefetch.cpp, for instance).  DNS prefetching was implemented in xul-runner 1.9.1 as per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=453403).

Comment 1 Vincent Danen 2010-01-29 23:03:49 UTC
Note that this issue would not affect Thunderbird or Seamonkey as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, or 5 as DNS prefetching was not implemented in the versions of Thunderbird or Seamonkey provided (no nsHTMLDNSPrefetch.cpp, for instance).  DNS prefetching was implemented in xulrunner 1.9.1 as per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=453403).