Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-16355

Memory Safety in Mozilla Firefox ≤ 115.38.0

Published
21 July 2026
Modified
24 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0040 33th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-16355 is a critical-severity Type Confusion (CWE-843) vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 33th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

JIT miscompilation in the JavaScript Engine: JIT component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 153, Firefox ESR 115.38, Firefox ESR 140.13, Thunderbird 153, and Thunderbird 140.13.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1059.007 JavaScript Execution
Adversaries may abuse various implementations of JavaScript for execution.
Why these techniques?

Type confusion in JS JIT enables client-side RCE via malicious JavaScript (T1203, T1059.007).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-16410Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-2796Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2019-11707Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-8947Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-16363Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-7652Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2025-8029Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-6779Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2025-14325Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-12299Same product: Mozilla Firefox

Affected Assets

mozilla
firefox
≤ 115.38.0 · ≤ 153.0.0 · 128.1.0 — 140.13.0
mozilla
thunderbird
≤ 140.13.0 · 141.0 — 153.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • RA-5 Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.5.2
  • V3.2.3
  • V15.3.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly requires timely application of the vendor-supplied patches that remediate the JIT type-confusion flaw in CVE-2026-16355.

detect

Mandates continuous vulnerability scanning to identify unpatched Firefox/Thunderbird instances still containing the CWE-843 JIT miscompilation.

SC-18 Mobile Code partial match
prevent

Establishes usage restrictions and implementation guidance for mobile code (JavaScript) that can reduce exposure to JIT engine exploitation.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent type-confusion flaws via safe typing, static analysis, and code review while the control itself addresses many additional weaknesses.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

detects

Security testing in development can detect type-confusion vulnerabilities through fuzzing and static analysis.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates type-safe design and review that can catch type-confusion flaws.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify strong typing and interface contracts that reduce type confusion.

prevents

Secure architecture principles promote type-safe languages and memory-safety mechanisms that mitigate type confusion.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly forbid unsafe type casts and require static-analysis checks for type confusion.

References