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CVE-2010-3971

89
FAUCET Score

CVE-2010-3971 is a critical use-after-free vulnerability in the CSharedStyleSheet::Notify function of the mshtml.dll CSS parser, affecting Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 6 through 8 and other products. This flaw allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service via a specially crafted, self-referential @import rule within a stylesheet. With a CVSS score of 9.3, it is highly severe, requiring no authentication and moderate attack complexity, leading to complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Exploit code is publicly available, including a Metasploit module, and while not on the KEV catalog, it has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, indicating its historical importance and potential for exploitation.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
7CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:internet_explorer:7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:internet_explorer:8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 2.0

9.3HIGH

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Confidentiality Impact
COMPLETE
Integrity Impact
COMPLETE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Exploitability Score
8.6
Impact Score
10.0
CvssVersion
2.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
81.66%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
99.6%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
Metasploit: MS11-003 Microsoft Internet Explorer CSS Recursive Import Use After Free · Nov 29, 2010
ExploitDB: EDB-16533 · Feb 8, 2011
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.8166 is in the 100th percentile among its peer group of 8,918 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Remediation records are not available for this CVE.

References

blogs.technet.com / b/srd/archive/2011/01/07/assessing-the-risk-of-public-issues-currently-being-tracked-by-the-msrc.aspx
docs.microsoft.com / en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2011/ms11-003
seclists.org / fulldisclosure/2010/Dec/110
Exploit
secunia.com / advisories/42510
Vendor Advisory
oval.cisecurity.org / repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A12382
support.avaya.com / css/P8/documents/100127294
breakingpointsystems.com / community/blog/ie-vulnerability
Exploit
exploit-db.com / exploits/15708
Exploit
exploit-db.com / exploits/15746
Exploit
kb.cert.org / vuls/id/634956
US Government Resource
microsoft.com / technet/security/advisory/2488013.mspx
securityfocus.com / bid/45246
securitytracker.com / id
vupen.com / english/advisories/2010/3156
Vendor Advisory
vupen.com / english/advisories/2011/0318
wooyun.org / bugs/wooyun-2010-0885
Exploit