CVE-2014-3168 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Use-after-free vulnerability in the SVG implementation in Blink, as used in Google Chrome before 37.0.2062.94, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact by leveraging improper caching associated with animation.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/11/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-3168 represents a critical use-after-free flaw within the Scalable Vector Graphics implementation of the Blink rendering engine that powers Google Chrome browsers. This issue affects versions prior to 37.0.2062.94 and demonstrates how seemingly benign web content can be exploited to create serious security consequences. The vulnerability specifically manifests in the improper caching mechanism associated with SVG animations, creating conditions where memory that has been freed is subsequently accessed by the browser's rendering process. This type of memory corruption vulnerability falls under the CWE-416 category, which specifically addresses use-after-free conditions, making it a well-documented and dangerous class of software flaw that has plagued numerous applications over the years. The attack vector leverages the browser's handling of animated SVG content, where the improper cache management creates a scenario where freed memory blocks are still referenced during subsequent rendering operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple denial of service conditions to potentially enabling more severe consequences including arbitrary code execution. When a remote attacker crafts malicious SVG content with specific animation sequences, the browser's rendering engine may attempt to access memory that has already been deallocated during the normal course of animation processing. This memory access violation can lead to unpredictable behavior including browser crashes, system instability, or more critically, provide an attacker with opportunities to inject and execute malicious code within the browser's memory space. The vulnerability's exploitation requires the victim to view a specially crafted webpage containing the malicious SVG content, making it particularly dangerous in web-based attack scenarios where users may inadvertently encounter such content through phishing campaigns or compromised websites. The use of animation as the exploitation vector is significant because it leverages the complex rendering pipeline that processes animated graphics, creating multiple opportunities for memory management errors to occur.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability demonstrates how modern browser engines face increasing complexity in handling rich media content while maintaining memory safety. Blink's SVG implementation maintains caches of animation data to optimize performance, but the improper handling of cache invalidation during animation transitions creates the conditions for use-after-free errors. When animation frames are processed and cached, the system may free memory blocks that are still referenced in subsequent animation cycles, leading to memory corruption that can be leveraged by attackers. This flaw highlights the challenges faced by browser vendors in maintaining memory safety while providing rich multimedia experiences, as the optimization techniques used for performance can introduce security vulnerabilities. The vulnerability's classification under the ATT&CK framework would likely map to techniques involving memory corruption and privilege escalation, as the use-after-free condition can potentially be exploited to gain elevated privileges within the browser environment. Organizations should prioritize patching this vulnerability as it represents a significant risk to browser security and can serve as a foundation for more sophisticated attacks targeting user systems through web-based delivery mechanisms. The remediation involves updating to Chrome version 37.0.2062.94 or later, which includes fixes to the SVG animation caching mechanism that prevent the improper memory deallocation and subsequent access patterns.