CVE-2012-5152 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Google Chrome before 24.0.1312.52 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) via vectors involving seek operations on video data.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/22/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-5152 represents a critical out-of-bounds read flaw in Google Chrome versions prior to 24.0.1312.52 that specifically targets the browser's handling of video data during seek operations. This vulnerability falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions where a program accesses memory beyond the boundaries of a valid buffer. The flaw manifests when Chrome processes multimedia content, particularly during operations that involve seeking within video streams, making it a significant concern for web-based media playback functionality.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs within Chrome's media processing pipeline where the browser's video decoding and seeking mechanisms fail to properly validate the bounds of memory access when handling seek operations on video data. Attackers can craft malicious video content or manipulate existing video streams to trigger this condition, causing Chrome to read memory locations beyond the intended buffer boundaries. This out-of-bounds read can result in unpredictable behavior including application crashes, memory corruption, or potentially more severe consequences depending on how the corrupted memory is subsequently utilized.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability enables remote attackers to execute denial of service attacks against Chrome users by simply delivering specially crafted video content through web pages or media streams. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it requires no user interaction beyond visiting a malicious webpage or playing a compromised video file, making it a prime target for drive-by download scenarios. The vulnerability affects the browser's stability and user experience, potentially allowing attackers to repeatedly crash the browser or render it unusable for legitimate web browsing activities.
The exploitation of CVE-2012-5152 aligns with tactics described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the Tactic of Execution and the Technique of Exploitation of Vulnerabilities. The vulnerability represents a classic example of how media processing components in browsers can serve as attack surfaces for remote code execution or denial of service conditions. Organizations and users should prioritize immediate patching of affected Chrome versions to mitigate this risk, as the vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper bounds checking in multimedia processing components. The flaw highlights the necessity of robust input validation and memory safety mechanisms in browser engines, particularly when handling complex multimedia formats that involve seek operations and buffer management. Security practitioners should monitor for indicators of compromise related to this vulnerability and implement network-based detection measures to identify potentially malicious video content that could exploit this flaw.