CVE-2011-2801 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome before 13.0.782.107 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via vectors related to the frame loader.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/12/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-2801 represents a critical use-after-free flaw in Google Chrome versions prior to 13.0.782.107, classified under CWE-416 as improper cleanup of memory resources. This vulnerability specifically affects the browser's frame loader component, which is responsible for managing the loading and rendering of HTML frames within web pages. The flaw occurs when the browser fails to properly manage memory allocation and deallocation processes during frame loading operations, creating a scenario where freed memory locations can be accessed or reused by subsequent operations.
The technical execution of this vulnerability involves remote attackers exploiting the improper memory management within Chrome's rendering engine to trigger a use-after-free condition. When a malicious web page loads frames in a specific sequence or with particular attributes, the browser's frame loader may free memory associated with frame objects while other processes or threads still reference those locations. This creates a race condition where subsequent memory operations can overwrite the freed memory space, leading to unpredictable behavior that can manifest as application crashes, denial of service conditions, or potentially more severe consequences depending on the memory corruption patterns.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to web browsing security as it can be exploited through standard web navigation without requiring any special privileges or user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website. The denial of service aspect means that legitimate users could experience browser crashes or complete application failures when encountering crafted web content. The unspecified other impacts mentioned in the CVE description suggest potential for more serious consequences including arbitrary code execution, which would elevate this vulnerability from a simple DoS to a remote code execution threat. The attack surface is particularly broad as frame loading is a fundamental web feature used extensively across the internet.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability include immediate patching of Chrome browsers to versions 13.0.782.107 or later, which contain the necessary memory management fixes. Organizations should implement robust browser update policies and consider deploying automated patch management systems to ensure timely remediation. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and content filtering solutions can provide additional defense-in-depth measures by blocking known malicious content. Security monitoring should focus on detecting unusual browser crash patterns or memory allocation anomalies that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203 (Exploitation for Client Execution) and T1059 (Command and Scripting Interpreter) as it represents a client-side exploitation vector that can lead to broader system compromise when combined with other attack techniques. Browser vendors and security researchers should continue monitoring for similar memory corruption vulnerabilities in web rendering engines, as these flaws often indicate deeper architectural issues in memory management systems that may affect other components of the browser or operating system.