Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2018-17462: Google Chrome: Use After Free

CVE-2018-17462 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.6 and affects Google Chrome, along with 4 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

Incorrect refcounting in AppCache in Google Chrome prior to 70.0.3538.67 allowed a remote attacker to perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.6: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: Required. A user must take an action, such as opening a file or following a link.
  • Scope: Changed. Impact reaches beyond the vulnerable component to other resources.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-416: Use After Free

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory belongs to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Affected products

  • Google Chrome: before 70.0.3538.67
  • Red Hat Linux Desktop: 6.0
  • Red Hat Linux Server: 6.0
  • Red Hat Linux Workstation: 6.0
  • Debian Linux: 9.0

References