Thunderbird Command Line URL Shell Command Injection

A vulnerability has been discovered in Thunderbird, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user’s system.

The vulnerability is caused due to the shell script used to launch Thunderbird is parsing shell commands that are enclosed within backticks in the URL provided via the command line. This can e.g. be exploited to execute arbitrary shell commands by tricking a user into following a malicious link with the “mailto:” URI handler in an external application which uses Thunderbird as the default mail reader (e.g. Firefox on Fedora Core 4).

This vulnerability can only be exploited on Unix / Linux based environments.

This is related to: SA16869

The vulnerability has been confirmed in version 1.0.6 on Fedora Core 4. Other versions and platforms may also be affected.

Solution: Do not use Thunderbird as the default mail reader.

Original Advisory: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=307185

Other References:
SA16869

[Continue reading Secunia Advisory: SA16901]