CVE-2018-6168 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Information leak in media engine in Google Chrome prior to 68.0.3440.75 allowed a remote attacker to obtain potentially sensitive information from process memory via a crafted HTML page.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/17/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-6168 represents a critical information disclosure flaw within Google Chrome's media engine component that existed prior to version 68.0.3440.75. This vulnerability falls under the category of information leakage attacks where remote adversaries could potentially extract sensitive data from process memory through maliciously crafted web content. The flaw specifically resides in how Chrome handles media processing operations, making it particularly dangerous as it could be exploited through standard web browsing activities without requiring any special privileges or user interaction beyond visiting a compromised website.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper memory handling within Chrome's media processing pipeline. When processing media content such as audio or video files, the browser's media engine fails to properly sanitize or validate memory access patterns, allowing attackers to craft HTML pages that trigger memory corruption behaviors. This creates opportunities for information disclosure where sensitive data from adjacent memory regions could be read and exfiltrated. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the browser level where multiple applications and processes interact, potentially exposing not only browser-specific data but also information from other running applications that may share memory segments.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to user privacy and system security. Remote attackers could leverage this flaw to access sensitive information including but not limited to authentication tokens, personal data, cryptographic keys, or other confidential information stored in memory. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it requires no user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website, making it highly effective for large-scale exploitation campaigns. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond individual user privacy concerns to potentially compromise enterprise security, as attackers could use this information to gain deeper access to systems or to conduct more sophisticated attacks such as credential theft or privilege escalation attempts.
The flaw aligns with CWE-200, which addresses "Information Exposure," and represents a classic example of how memory safety issues can lead to information disclosure vulnerabilities. From an adversarial perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1059.001 for "Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell" and T1005 for "Data from Local System" when considering the potential for further exploitation. Organizations should prioritize immediate patching of affected Chrome versions to mitigate this risk, while also implementing network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts. Additional mitigations include browser hardening measures, content security policies, and user education about avoiding untrusted websites. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of memory safety in browser security and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of media processing components that handle untrusted input from web pages.