CVE-2019-13677 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE
Insufficient policy enforcement in site isolation in Google Chrome prior to 77.0.3865.75 allowed a remote attacker to bypass site isolation via a crafted HTML page.
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/27/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-13677 represents a critical weakness in Google Chrome's site isolation mechanism that was present in versions prior to 77.0.3865.75. Site isolation serves as a fundamental security feature designed to prevent malicious websites from accessing data from other websites by isolating each site into its own operating system process. This architectural defense is particularly crucial in modern browsers where multiple tabs and windows often contain content from different origins, creating potential attack surfaces for cross-site scripting and data leakage exploits.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient policy enforcement within Chrome's site isolation implementation, allowing attackers to craft malicious HTML pages that can bypass the intended isolation boundaries. This vulnerability operates at the core of Chrome's security architecture, specifically targeting the process isolation model that separates different websites into distinct processes to prevent malicious code from accessing sensitive data from other sites. The weakness manifests when the browser fails to properly enforce the isolation policies that should prevent a compromised tab or frame from accessing memory or data belonging to other isolated sites.
Operationally, this vulnerability enables remote attackers to execute cross-site data leakage attacks by constructing specially crafted HTML content that exploits the incomplete policy enforcement. An attacker could potentially access cookies, local storage, session data, or other sensitive information from other websites that should be isolated in separate processes. The impact extends beyond simple data theft to potentially enabling more sophisticated attacks such as session hijacking, credential theft, or even privilege escalation within the browser environment. This represents a significant weakening of the browser's security model, as the fundamental isolation principle that protects users from malicious websites is compromised.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-693, which addresses protection mechanism failures, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1056.001 for Input Injection and T1071.004 for Application Layer Protocol. Organizations should immediately update to Chrome version 77.0.3865.75 or later to remediate this vulnerability, as the patch addresses the insufficient policy enforcement by strengthening the site isolation mechanisms. Additional mitigations include implementing proper web application security controls, monitoring for suspicious HTML content, and maintaining awareness of the evolving threat landscape in browser-based attacks. Security teams should also consider deploying network-level protections and browser security extensions that can provide additional layers of defense against similar exploitation techniques. The incident underscores the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date browser software and the need for continuous security assessment of core browser security features that protect users from sophisticated cross-site attacks.