CVE-2026-79010 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE • 08/25/2026
Operation on a resource after expiration or release in Network in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.65 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to bypass web origin policy via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/26/2026
The vulnerability identified as an operation on a resource after expiration or release within Google Chrome prior to version 152.0.7977.65 represents a critical failure in memory management and state validation during network operations. This flaw, classified under the CWE-416 category of Use After Free, occurs when the browser's networking stack attempts to access data structures that have already been deallocated or released by the garbage collector or explicit cleanup routines. In modern web browsers like Chrome, which utilize a multi-process architecture with isolated renderer processes for each tab and frame, such memory errors can be particularly dangerous if they allow cross-origin state leakage or policy bypasses. The specific context here involves network resources where timing conditions or race states lead to the browser retaining references to freed memory blocks that still contain sensitive contextual information about previous requests or connections.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability exploits the complex lifecycle of objects involved in HTTP request handling and response processing within Chromium's networking layer. When a renderer process initiates a network operation, it creates various internal structures to manage headers, cookies, and connection states. If these structures are prematurely released while still being referenced by asynchronous callbacks or pending tasks, subsequent operations may read from invalid memory locations. In this specific instance, the flaw allowed an attacker who had already achieved code execution within a compromised renderer process through another vector to manipulate these dangling pointers. By crafting a malicious HTML page that triggers precise timing conditions during network requests, the attacker could cause the browser to operate on stale or freed resources, effectively bypassing the web origin policy which is designed to restrict how documents or scripts loaded from one origin interact with resources from another origin.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant because it undermines a fundamental security boundary in web browsing: same-origin policy enforcement. Web origins are defined by their protocol, host, and port, and browsers enforce strict isolation between different origins to prevent malicious sites from accessing data belonging to other sites, such as banking portals or email services. By bypassing these policies through use-after-free exploitation, an attacker could potentially read sensitive cookies, local storage data, or response bodies intended for a different origin. This capability transforms a contained renderer compromise into a broader threat where the isolation between tabs and frames is broken, allowing lateral movement within the user's browsing session and potential exfiltration of confidential information stored in browser-managed state.
This vulnerability aligns with several entries in the MITRE ATT&CK framework, specifically relating to Defense Evasion techniques such as T1078 Valid Accounts if used for privilege escalation or more accurately T1534 Internal Spearphishing combined with exploitation of client-side software vulnerabilities. It also reflects common patterns seen in browser security research where memory corruption bugs are chained to achieve policy bypasses. The Chromium project has addressed this issue by ensuring that all network-related resources are properly validated before access and that references are nullified immediately after release, preventing any subsequent operations from interacting with freed memory.
Mitigation for users involves upgrading Google Chrome to version 152.0.7977.65 or later as soon as possible. Since this vulnerability requires a pre-existing compromise of the renderer process, it is part of a chain of exploits rather than a standalone remote code execution vector accessible from any arbitrary website without prior exploitation steps. However, maintaining up-to-date browser versions remains critical to closing these gaps in memory safety and policy enforcement. For developers and security teams monitoring Chromium-based browsers, this incident highlights the importance of rigorous static analysis and fuzzing of network stack components to detect use-after-free conditions before they can be leveraged for origin bypasses. Regular patch management is the primary defense against such vulnerabilities, as browser vendors continuously refine their memory safety guarantees in response to evolving attack techniques targeting client-side software integrity.