CVE-2010-3971
Use-after-free vulnerability in the CSharedStyleSheet::Notify function in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) parser in mshtml.dll, as used…
- 9.3HighCVSS base score
- 81.7%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.4% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 4Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Use-after-free vulnerability in the CSharedStyleSheet::Notify function in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) parser in mshtml.dll, as used in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 through 8 and other products, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via a self-referential @import rule in a stylesheet, aka "CSS Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module and 3 Exploit-DB entries for it. 2 references of the record are tagged as an exploit.
Show the exploits6
Metasploit modules1 module
- MS11-003 Microsoft Internet Explorer CSS Recursive Import Use After Free (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/windows/browser/ms11_003_ie_css_importRank gooddisclosed 29 Nov 2010
Exploit-DB3 entries
- Microsoft Internet Explorer - CSS Recursive Import Use-After-Free (MS11-003) (Metasploit) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 16533remote, windowspublished 8 Feb 2011Verified
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 - CSS Parser (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 15746remote, windowspublished 15 Dec 2010Verified
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 - CSS Parser Denial of Service (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 15708dos, windowspublished 8 Dec 2010Verified
References tagged exploit2 references
- 15746 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- 15708 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By microsoft
- 2 months later
· 2 months later
Published
- 14 years later
· 14 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | High9.3 | AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 81.7% · top 0.4% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 9.3.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
16
- VU#634956 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_CERT-VNx_transferred
- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/2488013.mspx (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- 15746 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2011/01/07/assessing-the-risk-of-public-issues-currently-being-tracked-by-the-msrc.aspx (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://www.breakingpointsystems.com/community/blog/ie-vulnerability/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100127294 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- ADV-2011-0318 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_VUPENx_transferred
- 15708 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- ADV-2010-3156 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_VUPENx_transferred
- MS11-003 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_MSx_transferred
- 1024922 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- http://www.wooyun.org/bugs/wooyun-2010-0885 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- 20101208 IE CSS parser dos bug (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_FULLDISCx_transferred
- 45246 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:12382 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entrysignaturex_refsource_OVALx_transferred
- 42510 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2010-3948 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2010-3971)Record last updated .