Security News > 2020 > September > Firefox Flaw Allowed Hackers to Remotely Open Malicious Sites on Android Phones
A vulnerability identified in Firefox for Android could have been exploited to remotely open arbitrary websites on a targeted user's phone without the need to click on links, install malicious applications, or conduct man-in-the-middle attacks.
The flaw was discovered by researcher Chris Moberly in version 68 of Firefox for Android.
It was reported to Mozilla, which confirmed that the new Firefox Fenix is not impacted - the Firefox for Android version jumped from 68 to 79 due to Fenix replacing the Fennec version.
An attacker connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the targeted user can deploy a malicious SSDP server that is set up to respond with specially crafted messages that cause Firefox to open an arbitrary website.
This is possible because the messages broadcasted by Firefox are looking for an XML file describing a Universal Plug and Play device that it can cast to, but the attacker's server instead responds with a message pointing to an Android intent URI that is invoked by Firefox.