| Recurring |
one_organization |
(a) The software failure incident related to a security flaw in Mozilla's Firefox browser has happened again within the same organization. The article mentions that on Thursday, Mozilla revealed a vulnerability in its browser that was discovered by a Firefox user [38978]. This indicates that a security flaw was found within Mozilla's own product, Firefox, leading to the need for an update to fix the issue. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident in the article is related to the design phase. The vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser was due to a flaw in its PDF Viewer and the use of JavaScript code, which allowed an ad on a news site in Russia to exploit the vulnerability and upload certain files from users' computers to a server in Ukraine. This flaw was discovered by a Firefox user, indicating a design weakness in the browser's functionality [38978].
(b) The software failure incident is also related to the operation phase. Users were advised to update to the latest version of Firefox (version 39.0.3) to fix the security hole. This highlights the importance of operational procedures such as updating software to mitigate risks and vulnerabilities introduced by the operation or use of the system [38978]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system, outside_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident reported in the article is within the system. The vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser was discovered by a Firefox user and allowed an ad on a news site in Russia to exploit the browser's PDF Viewer and JavaScript code to upload certain files from a user's computer to a server in Ukraine. Mozilla quickly released a fix for this security hole in the latest version of Firefox, version 39.0.3, urging all users to update to this version to address the issue [38978]. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident in this case was due to non-human actions, specifically a vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser that was discovered by a Firefox user [38978]. The vulnerability allowed an ad on a news site in Russia to exploit Firefox's PDF Viewer and JavaScript code to upload certain files from a user's computer to a server in Ukraine. This exploit was not caused by human actions but rather by a flaw in the software itself. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
software |
(a) The software failure incident reported in the article is related to a vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser that allowed an ad on a news site in Russia to exploit a vulnerability and upload files from a user's computer to a server in Ukraine. This incident was not due to hardware issues but rather a software vulnerability within the Firefox browser itself [38978]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
malicious |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article is malicious in nature. It involved a vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser that was exploited by an ad on a news site in Russia to upload certain files from a user's computer to a server in Ukraine. The exploit targeted developer-focused files using Firefox's PDF Viewer and JavaScript code. The hack was designed to capture specific files from users' computers, indicating malicious intent to access and potentially misuse sensitive information [38978]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
unknown |
(a) The software failure incident related to the Firefox vulnerability was not due to poor decisions but rather due to a security flaw that was exploited by a malicious ad on a news site in Russia. Mozilla quickly responded to the vulnerability by releasing an update to fix the security hole [38978]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The software failure incident related to development incompetence is not explicitly mentioned in the provided article. Therefore, it is unknown if the failure was due to contributing factors introduced due to lack of professional competence by humans or the development organization.
(b) The software failure incident related to an accidental factor is evident in the article. The vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser was discovered by a Firefox user after an ad on an unnamed news site in Russia was able to exploit the vulnerability to upload certain files from a user's computer to a server in Ukraine. This incident was not intentional but occurred accidentally due to the vulnerability in the browser [38978]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
The software failure incident reported in Article 38978 was temporary. The incident was related to a vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox browser that allowed an ad on a news site in Russia to exploit a security flaw and upload certain files from users' computers to a server in Ukraine. Mozilla quickly responded to this incident by releasing an updated version of Firefox (version 39.0.3) that contained a fix for the security hole. Users were urged to update their browsers to the latest version to address the vulnerability. This indicates that the software failure incident was temporary and was resolved through a software update [38978]. |
| Behaviour |
omission, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident in the article is not described as a crash where the system loses state and does not perform any of its intended functions [38978].
(b) omission: The vulnerability in Firefox allowed an ad on a news site in Russia to upload certain files from a user's computer to a server in Ukraine, indicating an omission in the system's intended functions [38978].
(c) timing: The article does not mention the software failure incident being related to timing issues where the system performs its intended functions too late or too early [38978].
(d) value: The software failure incident is not described as a failure due to the system performing its intended functions incorrectly [38978].
(e) byzantine: The behavior of the software failure incident in the article does not align with a byzantine failure where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions [38978].
(f) other: The software failure incident in the article can be categorized as a security flaw that allowed unauthorized access to certain files on a user's computer, indicating a breach in the system's security protocols [38978]. |