Is CVE-2020-26972 actively exploited?

No active exploitation of CVE-2020-26972 has been confirmed so far. Continue monitoring, as exploit status can change.

Can CVE-2020-26972 be exploited remotely?

Yes. CVE-2020-26972 is exploitable remotely over the network (CVSS attack vector: Network).

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-26972?

CVE-2020-26972 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL).

HOME VULNERABILITIESCVE-2020-26972

CRITICAL

CVE-2020-26972

CWE-416Published: January 7, 2021· Updated: Jun 17, 2026

9.8

CVSS v3.1

Official Description

The lifecycle of IPC Actors allows managed actors to outlive their manager actors; and the former must ensure that they are not attempting to use a dead actor they have a reference to. Such a check was omitted in WebGL, resulting in a use-after-free and a potentially exploitable crash. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 84.

NVD Source

Technical Analysis

CVE-2020-26972 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.

The vulnerability requires no privileges and no user interaction, making it a prime target for automated exploitation campaigns and worm-like propagation.

A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 9.8.

From a weakness classification perspective (CWE-416): Use-after-free vulnerabilities involve accessing memory after it has been freed, often enabling arbitrary code execution.