Zero-Day Vulnerability Actively Exploited in Google Chrome (CVE-2021-30551)

Overview

Google has issued a new update to patch for recently discovered 14 vulnerabilities that exist in Chrome browser. Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux should be updated immediately, as one of the vulnerabilities is a zero-day (CVE-2021-30551) and known to be exploited in the wild.

Description

Google has released a new version (91.0.4472.101) for Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux to patch for a total of 14 security vulnerabilities. So far, Google has disclosed limited information, such as CVE identifiers and vulnerability types, on the recently discovered vulnerabilities.

Google also announced that one of these vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-30551) is a zero-day and actively exploited in the wild with a known exploit for it.

Further details on the disclosed vulnerabilities are as follows:

Impact

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30544 by causing heap corruption in BFCache via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30545 by causing heap corruption in the renderer process via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30546 by causing heap corruption in Autofill via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30547 by performing out of bounds memory access in ANGLE, could gain unauthorized access on the system, leading to information disclosure.

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30548 by causing heap corruption in Loader via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who upon convincing a user to install a malicious extension successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30549 by causing heap corruption in Spell Check via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who upon convincing a user to install a malicious extension successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30550 by causing heap corruption in Accessibility via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30551 by causing heap corruption in V8 via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who upon convincing a user to install a malicious extension successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30552 by causing heap corruption in Extensions via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

A remote attacker, who successfully exploits the CVE-2021-30553 by causing heap corruption in Network Service via a crafted HTML page, could execute arbitrary code and gain full control of the system.

Solution (Update)

To defend against possible attacks due to these vulnerabilities, Google Chrome needs to be updated to the stable version 91.0.4472.101.

Normally, Chrome updates in the background when it is closed and reopened. However, if it has not been closed for a while, there might be pending updates. To check for pending updates, you can click More (Three vertical dots) on the top right of the Chrome browser.

I am regularly asked what the average Internet user can do to ensure his security. My first answer is usually ‘Nothing; you’re screwed’.

Bruce Schneier

References to Advisories, Solutions and Tools

• Google Chrome Releases Blog (Stable Channel Update for Desktop)

To learn more about security vulnerabilities, you could also read our articles What is a Security Vulnerability? or What is Vulnerability Scanning?