CVE-2010-4197 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Use-after-free vulnerability in WebKit, as used in Google Chrome before 7.0.517.44, webkitgtk before 1.2.6, and other products, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via vectors involving text editing.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/28/2021
The CVE-2010-4197 vulnerability represents a critical use-after-free flaw within the WebKit rendering engine that affected multiple high-profile web browsers and applications. This vulnerability specifically manifests in the text editing functionality of WebKit-based systems, creating a dangerous condition where memory that has been freed is still accessed by the application. The flaw exists in the way WebKit handles memory management during text editing operations, particularly when dealing with dynamic content modification and DOM manipulation. The vulnerability affects Google Chrome versions prior to 7.0.517.44 and WebKitGTK versions before 1.2.6, indicating the widespread nature of the issue across different implementations of the WebKit engine.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when an attacker crafts malicious web content that triggers specific text editing scenarios within a WebKit-based browser. During normal text editing operations, the browser's JavaScript engine interacts with the WebKit rendering engine to manage document objects and their associated memory allocations. When the vulnerability is triggered, the memory management system fails to properly track object references, leading to situations where freed memory locations are accessed or modified by subsequent operations. This use-after-free condition can result in unpredictable behavior, application crashes, or potentially more severe consequences depending on how the freed memory is subsequently utilized by the application.
The operational impact of CVE-2010-4197 extends beyond simple denial of service conditions to potentially enable more sophisticated attacks. While the vulnerability description indicates it could cause denial of service, the "unspecified other impact" portion suggests potential for remote code execution or privilege escalation scenarios. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code on targeted systems by carefully crafting web pages that trigger the memory corruption during text editing operations. The vulnerability's presence in widely-used browsers like Chrome makes it particularly dangerous from a threat perspective, as it could be exploited through standard web browsing activities without requiring any special privileges or user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website. The attack surface is broad due to the prevalence of WebKit-based browsers and the common nature of text editing functionality in web applications.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2010-4197 primarily focus on immediate software updates and security patches provided by vendors. Organizations should prioritize updating to patched versions of Google Chrome, WebKitGTK, and any other affected WebKit-based applications. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-416, which specifically addresses use-after-free conditions in memory management, and could potentially map to ATT&CK techniques involving privilege escalation or code execution through memory corruption. Additional protective measures include implementing web application firewalls, enabling sandboxing features, and deploying content security policies that limit the execution of potentially malicious JavaScript. Browser security configurations should be reviewed to ensure that text editing features are properly constrained, and users should be educated about the risks of visiting untrusted websites. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify any remaining instances of the vulnerable software versions within organizational environments.