CVE-2013-6641 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Use-after-free vulnerability in the FormAssociatedElement::formRemovedFromTree function in core/html/FormAssociatedElement.cpp in Blink, as used in Google Chrome before 32.0.1700.76 on Windows and before 32.0.1700.77 on Mac OS X and Linux, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact by leveraging improper handling of the past names map of a FORM element.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/08/2021
The CVE-2013-6641 vulnerability represents a critical use-after-free flaw within the Blink rendering engine that powers Google Chrome browsers. This vulnerability specifically targets the FormAssociatedElement::formRemovedFromTree function located in core/html/FormAssociatedElement.cpp, demonstrating how improper memory management can lead to severe security implications. The flaw affects Chrome versions prior to 32.0.1700.76 on Windows platforms and before 32.0.1700.77 on Mac OS X and Linux operating systems, highlighting the cross-platform nature of this memory safety issue.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate handling of the past names map associated with FORM elements during the removal process from the document tree structure. When a FORM element is removed from the HTML document tree, the function fails to properly manage the memory references to elements that were previously associated with that form, creating a scenario where freed memory locations can still be accessed or manipulated. This improper memory management directly maps to CWE-416, which specifically addresses use-after-free vulnerabilities where program memory is accessed after it has been freed, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or system instability.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple denial of service conditions to potentially enable more sophisticated attacks. Remote attackers can exploit this flaw by crafting malicious web pages that manipulate FORM elements in ways that trigger the vulnerable code path, causing the browser to attempt to access freed memory locations. This exploitation can result in browser crashes, rendering the application unusable, or in more severe cases, potentially allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code within the browser context. The vulnerability's potential for unspecified other impacts suggests that it could be leveraged for privilege escalation or information disclosure scenarios, making it particularly dangerous in targeted attack scenarios.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-6641 primarily focus on immediate patching and system updates to ensure affected Chrome installations receive the memory safety improvements implemented by Google. Organizations should prioritize updating to Chrome versions 32.0.1700.76 or later on Windows systems and 32.0.1700.77 or later on Mac OS X and Linux platforms. Additionally, browser security configurations should include enabling sandboxing features and implementing content security policies to limit the potential impact of such vulnerabilities. Network administrators should consider implementing web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious HTML content that might attempt to trigger this specific memory management flaw. The vulnerability's classification under the ATT&CK framework would fall within the privilege escalation and execution categories, emphasizing the need for comprehensive browser security hardening measures and regular security assessments to prevent exploitation of similar memory safety issues in web rendering engines.