CVE-2021-29961
NixOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

CVE-2021-29961 is a security vulnerability discovered in Mozilla Firefox affecting versions prior to 89.0. The vulnerability was disclosed on June 1, 2021, and involves an issue where Firefox did not apply correct clipping when styling and rendering an oversized <select> element, which allowed attackers to paint over the browser's user interface (Mozilla Advisory, NVD).

Technical details

The vulnerability stems from a floating-point accuracy issue in Firefox's WebRender component. When handling extremely large transforms and primitive sizes, the browser failed to properly constrain the rendering of content within the iframe clip rect. This occurred specifically when the coordinate system was axis-aligned with respect to the global iframe clip rect, causing floating point accuracy loss that resulted in incorrect clip rect mapping (Mozilla Bug).

Impact

The vulnerability allows malicious websites to render content outside of their designated boundaries, potentially enabling UI spoofing attacks. An attacker could exploit this to paint over Firefox's user interface elements, including the address bar and toolbar, which could be used to deceive users about their current browsing context (NVD, Mozilla Advisory).

Exploitability

The vulnerability is rated with a CVSS v3.1 Base Score of 4.3 (Medium), requiring network access and user interaction to exploit. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no privileges required (PR:N), but does require user interaction (UI:R) to be successful (NVD).

Mitigation and workarounds

The vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 89.0. The solution involved applying iframe clips on tile caches instead of primitives, preventing floating point inaccuracy from affecting content outside an iframe. Users and administrators are advised to upgrade to Firefox version 89.0 or later to mitigate this vulnerability (Mozilla Advisory, Gentoo Advisory).

Additional resources


SourceThis report was generated using AI

Related NixOS vulnerabilities:

CVE ID

Severity

Score

Technologies

Component name

CISA KEV exploit

Has fix

Published date

CVE-2026-18713HIGH8.8
  • NixOS logoNixOS
  • i
NoNoAug 12, 2026
CVE-2026-18669HIGH8.8
  • NixOS logoNixOS
  • i
NoNoAug 12, 2026
CVE-2026-18235HIGH8.3
  • NixOS logoNixOS
  • i
NoNoAug 12, 2026
CVE-2026-17420MEDIUM6.3
  • NixOS logoNixOS
  • i
NoNoAug 12, 2026
CVE-2026-18250MEDIUM5
  • NixOS logoNixOS
  • i
NoNoAug 12, 2026

Free Vulnerability Assessment

Benchmark your Cloud Security Posture

Evaluate your cloud security practices across 9 security domains to benchmark your risk level and identify gaps in your defenses.

Request assessment

Get a personalized demo

Ready to see Wiz in action?

"Best User Experience I have ever seen, provides full visibility to cloud workloads."
David EstlickCISO
"Wiz provides a single pane of glass to see what is going on in our cloud environments."
Adam FletcherChief Security Officer
"We know that if Wiz identifies something as critical, it actually is."
Greg PoniatowskiHead of Threat and Vulnerability Management