The iframe sandbox rules were not correctly applied to XSLT stylesheets, allowing an iframe to bypass restrictions such as executing scripts or navigating the top-level frame. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 94, Thunderbird < 91.3, and Firefox ESR < 91.3.
CVE-2021-38503
Score 10.0 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2021-12-09. NVD baseline CVSS 10.0; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 10.0
- EG Score
- 10.0(medium)
- EG Risk
- —
- EPSS
- 89.0%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
December 8, 2021
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
Advisory Details (10)
Auto-updated Jul 18, 2026Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Thunderbird 91.3 — Mozilla
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2021-50/Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Firefox ESR 91.3 — Mozilla
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2021-49/Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Firefox 94 — Mozilla
https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2021-48/[SECURITY] [DSA 5034-1] thunderbird security update
https://www.debian.org/security/2022/dsa-5034[SECURITY] [DSA 5026-1] firefox-esr security update
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5026Mozilla Thunderbird: Multiple Vulnerabilities (GLSA 202208-14) — Gentoo security
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-14Mozilla Firefox: Multiple vulnerabilities (GLSA 202202-03) — Gentoo security
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202202-03[SECURITY] [DLA 2874-1] thunderbird security update
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00001.html[SECURITY] [DLA 2863-1] firefox-esr security update
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/12/msg00030.html1729517 - (CVE-2021-38503) Script via XSLT stylesheet bypasses <iframe sandbox> attribute restrictions
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1729517Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-38503(2)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(11)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | firefox-locale-ast (94.0+build3-0ubuntu0.21.10.1) @ impish | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | thunderbird-locale-id (1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) @ focal | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | thunderbird-locale-id (1:91.3.1+build1-0ubuntu0.21.10.1) @ impish | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| redhat | firefox-0:91.3.0-1.el8_1 | 2021-11-10 | redhat |
| redhat | firefox-0:91.3.0-1.el8_2 | 2021-11-10 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:91.3.0-2.el8_1 | 2021-11-04 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:91.3.0-2.el8_2 | 2021-11-04 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:91.3.0-2.el7_9 | 2021-11-04 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:91.3.0-2.el8_4 | 2021-11-04 | redhat |
| redhat | firefox-0:91.3.0-1.el8_4 | 2021-11-03 | redhat |
| redhat | firefox-0:91.3.0-1.el7_9 | 2021-11-03 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(9)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4123IMPORTANT2021-11-02
RHSA-2021:4123 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4130IMPORTANT2021-11-02
RHSA-2021:4130 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4132IMPORTANT2021-11-02
RHSA-2021:4132 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4133IMPORTANT2021-11-02
RHSA-2021:4133 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4605IMPORTANT2021-11-02
RHSA-2021:4605 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4607IMPORTANT2021-11-02
RHSA-2021:4607 — Important
- UbuntuUSN-5131-1MEDIUM
Firefox vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-5152-1MEDIUM
Thunderbird vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-5248-1MEDIUM
Thunderbird vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 44× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-22 22:50 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-18 06:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-30 03:30 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 15:10 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 06:40 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-26 06:40 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-26 06:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-38503?
When was CVE-2021-38503 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-38503 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-38503?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-38503?
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