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CVE-2014-3425: NCSA Mosaic 2.0 can be crashed by local users

CVE-2014-3425 · published 12 years ago

Summary

The Mosaic web browser version 2.0 and earlier can be forced to stop working if a local user creates a special file in the temporary folder. This causes the program to think it is already running and it will shut down. Prevent this by restricting write access to the /tmp directory or updating to a newer version of the software.

What to do

The CVE record does not list a fixed version. Check the vendor's site or the advisory links below - a fix may already be released.

Affected software

Vendor	Product	Affected versions
illinois	ncsa_mosaic	<= 2.0 `cpe:2.3:a:illinois:ncsa_mosaic::::::::`

Original advisory text

NCSA Mosaic 2.0 and earlier allows local users to cause a denial of service ("remote control" outage) by creating a /tmp/xmosaic.pid file for every possible PID.

References

Fix within

Internet-facing 60 days

Internal At next upgrade

Not known to be exploited
Needs hands-on effort to exploit (estimated)
Gives an attacker partial control (estimated)

Severity

2.1 Low

Exploitation

<1% chance of attack within 30 days

Timeline

Published8 May 2014

Updated3 Nov 2026

First seen29 Sep 2026

Sources

CVE-2014-3425 · NVD

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