Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-16407

Mozilla Firefox ≤ 153.0.0

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 0.0028 20th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-16407 is a critical-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Drive-by Compromise (T1189); ranked at the 20th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Mitigation bypass in the DOM: Service Workers component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 153 and Thunderbird 153.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1189 Drive-by Compromise Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access to a system through a user visiting a website over the normal course of browsing.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
Why these techniques?

Critical browser mitigation bypass in Service Workers (CWE-284/693) directly enables drive-by compromise via malicious web content and client-side code execution in Firefox/Thunderbird.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-2768Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-0881Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-16387Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-16365Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-7525Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2025-1941Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-5687Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2025-11716Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-3932Shared CWE-284
CVE-2026-13953Shared CWE-284

Affected Assets

mozilla
firefox
≤ 153.0.0
mozilla
thunderbird
≤ 153.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
  • SC-39 Process Isolation
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 16 hardening rules · 9 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V10.3.5
  • V6.3.3
  • V6.6.3
  • V10.2.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces access control decisions in the DOM/Service Worker boundary, blocking the described mitigation bypass (CWE-284).

prevent

Enforces information flow rules between web origins and service workers, mitigating the protection mechanism failure (CWE-693).

prevent

Requires process isolation for browser components, limiting the impact of a service-worker mitigation bypass.

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.AA-03 mostly match
prevents

Enforcing authentication directly implements a core protection mechanism whose absence or misuse is the CWE.

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-05 directly enforces policy-based access management and least privilege, eliminating most improper-access-control defects, yet CWE-284 also covers implementation flaws and design gaps outside a single management control.

PR.DS-01 mostly match
prevents

Cryptographic and integrity controls are protection mechanisms whose correct deployment mitigates the CWE.

PR.DS-02 mostly match
prevents

Encryption and integrity protections for transit are explicit protection mechanisms.

PR.IR-01 mostly match
prevents

Logical network protections are protection mechanisms whose failure matches the CWE.

PR.PS-01 mostly match
prevents

Hardened baselines and deviation monitoring directly eliminate most configuration-induced access-control defects, yet CWE-284 also encompasses code-level and design flaws outside the scope of configuration management alone.

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.

prevents

Defining and enforcing explicit access rights and restrictions for each entity directly stops the assignment of permissions that exceed what is required, eliminating the root condition that allows improper access control.

prevents

Formal authorization, role-based provisioning, and timely revocation of access rights directly stop the creation of accounts or permissions that exceed what the business actually needs.

prevents

By enforcing explicit rules on which identities or groups may perform read, write, delete or execute operations and by denying anonymous access to sensitive data, the control directly stops the creation of overly permissive or missing access-control checks.

prevents

Requiring one-to-one mapping of identities to entities and timely removal of unused identities directly stops attackers from leveraging stale or shared accounts to bypass access restrictions.

prevents

By explicitly transferring security roles and responsibilities when personnel change jobs or leave, the control reduces the chance that former employees retain access rights they no longer need, thereby limiting improper access control.

prevents

Physical entry controls enforce explicit authorization and authentication at every access point, directly stopping unauthorized actors from reaching information-processing assets.

References