Description

Use after free in Views in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.65 allowed a remote attacker leveraging social engineering to execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "9.6",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-25T21:17:48.363Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-25T21:17:48.363Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability exists within the Views framework of Google Chrome prior to version 152.0.7977.65.\nThis flaw enables a remote attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution outside the browser sandbox context.\nThe vulnerability is classified as a memory corruption issue, which arises when the application attempts to access a heap-allocated memory location after it has been deallocated.\nSuccessful exploitation requires the attacker to employ social engineering techniques to entice a user into navigating to a malicious, crafted HTML page.\nThe impact is significant, as it facilitates a sandbox escape, granting an attacker control over the underlying host system with the privileges of the user running the browser.\nAlthough the Chromium security severity is rated as Medium, the potential for remote code execution (RCE) and sandbox circumvention poses a high risk to end-user security and system integrity.\nUsers are advised to upgrade to version 152.0.7977.65 or later to mitigate the underlying memory management defect.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability originates from a Use-After-Free (UAF) condition within the Views component of Google Chrome. In the context of the Chromium architecture, Views acts as the UI toolkit responsible for rendering browser elements. The flaw occurs when an object managed by the Views framework is prematurely freed while a dangling pointer to that memory address persists.\nThe exploitation lifecycle begins when an attacker induces a user to visit a malicious website hosting crafted HTML/JavaScript. By manipulating the document object model (DOM) or specific UI-related triggers within the Views framework, the attacker forces the browser to deallocate an object—such as a widget, layout manager, or event handler—while simultaneously maintaining a reference to it.\nThrough heap grooming or spray techniques, the attacker attempts to allocate a new object of a similar size to the previously freed memory location. When the browser subsequently attempts to access the original object via the dangling pointer, it inadvertently executes code or interacts with the attacker-controlled data now residing in that memory block. This triggers a controlled memory corruption event.\nBecause the Views framework often operates with higher privileges than the web content rendering process, or interacts closely with browser-level interfaces, successfully hijacking the control flow at this stage facilitates a sandbox escape. The transition from a compromised rendering process to arbitrary code execution outside the sandbox allows the attacker to bypass browser-imposed security boundaries, such as site isolation and process compartmentalization.\nThe vulnerability is inherent to the browser's memory management logic and does not require pre-existing authentication or specialized privileges beyond the capability to present a malicious webpage. The payload execution occurs in the context of the user process, allowing for the potential installation of malware, data exfiltration, or further system compromise. The severity of the UAF is exacerbated by the deterministic nature of heap allocations once the attacker establishes a reliable primitive for heap layout manipulation, rendering the browser susceptible until the memory management patterns are corrected in the patched version 152.0.7977.65."
}