Mozilla Thunderbird NSS Library Memory Leak Vulnerability

Description:
Mozilla Thunderbird is susceptible to affected to DoS-type memory leak vulnerability disclosed in
Mozilla Network Security Services library implementation. This library is shipped with the newest
Mozilla Thunderbird application.

Reportedly the Network Security Services (NSS) library will leak 256 bytes of memory per RSA
cryptographic operation. After a certain amount of time, this causes the system to run out of memory
and may lead to a system hang or panic state.

The following Network Security Services library version was shipped with the newest Mozilla
Thunderbird 1.5.0.4:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\nss3.dll (NSS Base Library)
3.10.2.0 (September 2005)
I have confirmed this issue in version 1.0.6 (library version 3.9.3.0, July 2005) too.

Solution status:
No updated version available from the vendor at the time of reporting.

Timeline:
23-Jun-2006 - Vulnerability researched
25-Jun-2006 - Detailed research
26-Jun-2006 - Vendor was contacted
26-Jun-2006 - Reply from vendor
26-Jun-2006 - Security companies and several CERT units contacted

References:
Sun Alert ID #102461:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102461-1

NSS Project home page:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/

Best regards,
Juha-Matti Laurio
Networksecurity.fi
http://www.networksecurity.fi/