Description

Use after free in Animation in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.65 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Low)

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "8.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-25T21:18:18.763Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-25T21:18:18.763Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A critical Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability exists within the Animation component of Google Chrome, affecting versions prior to 152.0.7977.65. This memory corruption flaw allows a remote attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution within the constrained environment of the browser sandbox.\nThe vulnerability arises from improper memory management during the lifecycle of animation objects. By leveraging a specially crafted HTML page, a remote threat actor can trigger a state where memory is accessed after it has been deallocated. This leads to potential memory corruption, which can be manipulated to redirect control flow.\nAlthough the Chromium project classifies the security severity as Low, the impact includes arbitrary code execution, which fundamentally compromises browser integrity. Exploitation requires user interaction, typically through navigating to a malicious website. Organizations are advised to prioritize updating to version 152.0.7977.65 or higher to eliminate this attack vector and prevent memory-based exploitation.\nThe risk implication is significant as it provides an entry point for advanced persistent threats to bypass sandboxing mechanisms, potentially leading to further system-level compromise if subsequent vulnerabilities are chained.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is rooted in the memory management logic of the browser's Animation engine. A Use-After-Free (UAF) occurs when a pointer to a memory location persists after that memory has been freed by the heap allocator. In the context of Chromium's animation subsystem, certain animation objects may be incorrectly referenced after their lifecycle has reached a termination state or has been prematurely garbage collected.\nThe attack flow begins when a user navigates to a maliciously crafted HTML page designed to manipulate the browser's animation rendering pipeline. The attacker utilizes JavaScript or CSS animations to induce a race condition or a specific object destruction sequence that triggers the dangling pointer. Once the memory is freed, the attacker utilizes heap grooming techniques—often involving the allocation of new objects of similar size—to place controlled data at the address previously held by the animation object.\nWhen the animation component subsequently attempts to access the object via the dangling pointer, it inadvertently interacts with the attacker-controlled memory. By carefully structuring the payload within this substituted memory, an attacker can overwrite critical internal structures such as virtual function tables (vtable pointers) or function pointers. This provides a mechanism to redirect the program counter (PC) or instruction pointer to an attacker-specified location, such as shellcode or a ROP (Return-Oriented Programming) chain.\nDespite the browser sandbox, which restricts access to the underlying operating system, this vulnerability allows for execution within the renderer process. The renderer process is responsible for parsing and rendering content; successful exploitation grants the attacker the ability to execute arbitrary code within the context of that specific process. While the sandbox remains an obstacle, this execution context is sufficient to bypass same-origin policy restrictions, access sensitive DOM elements, steal session cookies, or extract local data accessible to the renderer. Furthermore, a renderer-side UAF is frequently utilized as the initial stage in a multi-stage exploit chain designed to escape the sandbox entirely by exploiting subsequent vulnerabilities in the IPC (Inter-Process Communication) layer or kernel interfaces.\nThe flaw affects versions prior to 152.0.7977.65 and does not require authentication, as the attack is delivered via standard web content processing. The primary requirement is successful delivery of the crafted content to the target user, making it a persistent risk for any user browsing untrusted web resources."
}