Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-4697

Memory Safety in Mozilla Firefox ≤ 140.9.0

Published
24 March 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0069 50th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-4697 is a high-severity Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (CWE-754) vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 50% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2026-4697 involves incorrect boundary conditions (CWE-754) in the Audio/Video: Web Codecs component of Mozilla products. This vulnerability affects Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird, with fixes released in Firefox 149, Firefox ESR 140.9, Thunderbird 149, and Thunderbird 140.9.

The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Remote attackers with no privileges or user interaction can exploit it over the network with low attack complexity, achieving a high impact on availability through denial of service, such as application crashes, without compromising confidentiality or integrity.

Mozilla's security advisories MFSA 2026-20, MFSA 2026-22, MFSA 2026-23, and MFSA 2026-24, along with Bugzilla entry 2020422, provide further details on the issue and patches. Security practitioners should ensure affected systems update to the specified fixed versions for mitigation.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Incorrect boundary conditions in the Audio/Video: Web Codecs component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 149, Firefox ESR 140.9, Thunderbird 149, and Thunderbird 140.9.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-4699Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-4686Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2026-4685Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2023-32216Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2023-6213Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-2615Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2023-5731Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-1557Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2024-5695Same product: Mozilla Firefox
CVE-2023-37212Same product: Mozilla Firefox

Affected Assets

mozilla
firefox
≤ 140.9.0 · ≤ 149.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 7 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation explicitly exercises unusual conditions to find missing or incorrect checks.

Input validation directly requires checking for unexpected or malformed conditions before they propagate.

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

Security engineering principles include structured handling of edge cases and exceptions during design.

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the exploitability and blast radius of a successful out-of-bounds write.

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 development practices directly require proper checks and handling for exceptional conditions throughout the SDLC.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software and environments can detect adverse events triggered by unhandled exceptional conditions.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover out-of-bounds write flaws so they can be remediated.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.

PR.PS-04 partial match
prevents

Generating logs of exceptions and errors enables detection of improper handling of unusual conditions.

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.

finds

Security testing in development and acceptance verifies handling of error and exceptional conditions.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record unhandled exceptions but does not prevent the weakness itself.

finds

Monitoring may detect symptoms of unhandled conditions but does not eliminate the root weakness.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates exception handling and input validation that directly prevent missing checks for unusual conditions.

prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for handling of exceptional conditions and error paths.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require robust error and exception handling mechanisms.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
  • V-248574 YUM must be configured to prevent the installation of patches, service packs, device drivers, or OL 8 system components that have not been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-754
  • V-248575 OL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-754
Oracle Linux 9 (1 rule)
  • V-271452 OL 9 must use a Linux Security Module configured to enforce limits on system services. prevents CWE-754

References