Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-16412

Memory Safety in 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 0.0033 26th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-16412 is a critical-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) 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 26th 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 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Memory safety bugs present in Firefox ESR 140.12 and Firefox 152. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code. This vulnerability…

more

was fixed in Firefox 153, Firefox ESR 140.13, Thunderbird 153, and Thunderbird 140.13.

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?

Memory corruption (CWE-119) in browser enables arbitrary code execution via malicious web content (drive-by) or client exploitation.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-16411Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-3847Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-5733Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-8388Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-0744Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-16394Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-10702Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-16408Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-4691Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-0879Same product: Mozilla Firefox

Affected Assets

mozilla
firefox
≤ 153.0.0 · 140.1.0 — 140.13.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly requires timely application of patches that remediate the memory-safety bugs described in the CVE.

prevent

Enforces memory-protection mechanisms (ASLR, DEP, guard pages, etc.) that block exploitation of the CWE-119 memory-corruption conditions.

prevent

Requires process isolation / sandboxing that limits the blast radius when a memory-safety flaw is successfully exploited to execute arbitrary code.

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 (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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 catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References