CVE-2026-121180 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE • 11/03/2026
Buffer overflow in Media in Google Chrome prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/03/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-9680 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within the media processing subsystem of Google Chrome, specifically affecting versions prior to 157.0.8103.38. This security defect arises from improper bounds checking during the handling of multimedia data streams, allowing an attacker who crafts malicious HTML content containing specially constructed media files or scripts to trigger a write operation beyond the allocated memory boundaries. The root cause lies in the complex parsing and decoding routines used by Chrome’s media engine, which failed to adequately validate input lengths against buffer capacities before performing copy operations. This type of error is classically categorized under CWE-120, Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input, indicating a fundamental failure in input validation that leads to memory corruption.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to its potential for remote code execution within the browser’s sandboxed environment. Although Chrome employs robust security measures such as site isolation and process separation to limit the blast radius of exploits, successfully exploiting this buffer overflow allows an attacker to overwrite adjacent memory structures with arbitrary data. By carefully crafting the payload, a malicious actor can manipulate control flow instructions or function pointers, ultimately achieving code execution privileges that may escape the immediate sandbox constraints depending on the specific browser version and operating system protections in place. This capability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203, Exploitation for Client Execution, where attackers leverage software vulnerabilities to run malicious payloads directly on a victim's device through web-based vectors.
The attack vector is primarily remote and requires user interaction, typically involving the loading of a crafted HTML page that embeds or references the vulnerable media components. This scenario falls under ATT&CK tactic T1566, Phishing, as it often relies on social engineering to persuade users to visit malicious sites or open compromised emails containing such pages. Once executed, the exploit can lead to full system compromise if additional privilege escalation techniques are employed post-exploitation. The severity rating of High by Chromium reflects the ease with which this vulnerability can be triggered and its significant potential for unauthorized access and data exfiltration from the affected machine.
Mitigation strategies focus primarily on immediate software updates, as Google has released version 157.0.8103.38 to address these memory safety issues through rigorous code reviews and automated fuzzing tests that identify such boundary violations. Administrators should ensure all Chrome instances are updated to the latest stable release to patch this specific flaw. In environments where immediate patching is not feasible, network-level controls can provide temporary relief by blocking access to known malicious domains or filtering out suspicious media file types at the proxy level. Additionally, enabling advanced security features such as Site Isolation and ensuring that hardware-based memory protection mechanisms like DEP (Data Execution Prevention) and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) are active on client devices can significantly reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation by making it harder for attackers to predict memory layouts and execute injected code.