CVE-2026-79235 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE • 08/26/2026
Use after free in WebGL in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.65 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code outside 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 • 08/26/2026
The vulnerability identified as a use-after-free condition within the WebGL subsystem of Google Chrome prior to version 152.0.7977.65 represents a critical memory management error that compromises the integrity and confidentiality of the browsing environment. This flaw arises when the browser fails to properly manage the lifecycle of objects allocated for rendering graphics via the OpenGL ES API, which is exposed through WebGL in Chromium-based browsers. Specifically, an object representing graphical resources or state data was accessed by the application after its memory had already been freed and potentially reallocated for other purposes. In high-level programming languages like C++, such errors occur when pointers are not nullified upon deallocation, allowing subsequent operations to interact with stale memory addresses that may now contain arbitrary data controlled by an attacker rather than the intended object state.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-416, which defines use-after-free as accessing memory after it has been freed. The operational impact of such a flaw is severe because modern web browsers rely heavily on sandboxing to isolate untrusted content from the host operating system and user data. WebGL operations are typically executed within these restricted sandboxes to prevent malicious scripts from directly interacting with low-level hardware or sensitive files. However, when a use-after-free condition occurs in this context, it can lead to arbitrary code execution outside of the intended sandbox boundaries. An attacker who crafts a specific HTML page containing malicious JavaScript that triggers WebGL rendering operations can exploit this race condition or logic error to write data into memory locations that are mapped with execute permissions, thereby achieving remote code execution on the victim's machine.
The exploitation vector for this vulnerability is classified as remote via network, aligning with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1203, which covers Exploitation for Client Execution. The attacker does not need physical access or prior authentication; instead, they simply need to lure a user into visiting a malicious webpage that contains the crafted exploit code. Once loaded, the browser's rendering engine processes the WebGL commands and encounters the memory corruption issue. Depending on the specific heap layout at the time of exploitation, this can allow an attacker to overwrite function pointers or object vtables, redirecting program flow to shellcode injected into the process memory. This bypasses many standard security mitigations such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), particularly if the heap spray is successful in predicting memory addresses.
Mitigation for this vulnerability requires immediate action by users and system administrators to update Google Chrome or any Chromium-based browser to version 152.0.7977.65 or later, where the underlying memory management logic has been corrected to ensure proper reference counting and nullification of pointers after deallocation. Additionally, organizations should enforce strict content security policies that restrict inline scripts and untrusted WebGL contexts from executing arbitrary code. Enabling sandboxing features at a granular level and keeping all browser plugins updated further reduces the attack surface. Security teams should also monitor for indicators of compromise related to unusual memory allocation patterns or unexpected network connections originating from browser processes, which may indicate active exploitation attempts targeting this specific flaw in older versions still present on some endpoints.