CVE-2026-79267 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE • 08/26/2026
Race condition in Workers 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 CVE-2024-8381 represents a critical race condition within the worker management subsystem of Google Chrome, specifically affecting versions prior to 152.0.7977.65. This flaw stems from improper synchronization mechanisms when handling concurrent access to shared resources associated with web workers. In modern browser architectures, web workers are designed to execute scripts in background threads separate from the main execution thread, allowing for complex computations without blocking the user interface. However, if the internal state transitions or resource allocations during worker initialization and termination are not strictly serialized, a window of opportunity emerges where an attacker can manipulate timing-dependent operations. This race condition is particularly dangerous because it occurs within the renderer process, which is responsible for executing web content such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript received from remote servers.
The operational impact of this vulnerability centers on the bypassing of the same-origin policy, a fundamental security mechanism that isolates documents or scripts loaded from different origins. By exploiting the race condition through a crafted HTML page hosted by an attacker, it is possible to manipulate the worker context in a way that allows access to data or resources belonging to a different origin than intended. This effectively breaks the isolation model that protects user privacy and application integrity. An adversary who has already compromised the renderer process can leverage this flaw to escalate privileges within the browser environment, potentially accessing sensitive information such as cookies, local storage contents, or session tokens from other websites loaded in the same browser instance. The severity is classified as medium by Chromium security standards because while it requires a specific crafted page and prior compromise of the renderer, its ability to circumvent origin isolation makes it a significant threat to multi-tenant web applications and user data confidentiality.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-362, which describes concurrent execution using shared resources with improper synchronization. The lack of atomic operations or proper locking mechanisms during critical sections of worker lifecycle management allows for non-deterministic behavior that can be exploited through precise timing attacks. Furthermore, the exploitation path relates to ATT&CK technique T1059, specifically Command and Scripting Interpreter, as it involves executing arbitrary code within a constrained environment to achieve unauthorized access. The attacker utilizes standard web technologies like JavaScript to trigger the race condition, demonstrating how complex browser internals can be subverted through well-timed interactions with vulnerable APIs.
Mitigation for this vulnerability primarily relies on applying the official security patches provided by Google in Chrome version 152.0.7977.65 and later releases. These updates address the synchronization issues within the worker subsystem, ensuring that resource access is properly serialized to prevent race conditions. For organizations managing large fleets of devices, automated patch management systems should be configured to prioritize this update due to its potential for privilege escalation via origin bypass. Additionally, developers implementing web workers in their applications should adhere to strict concurrency best practices and avoid relying on implicit synchronization guarantees from the browser engine where possible. Security monitoring tools can also be tuned to detect unusual patterns of worker creation or termination that may indicate exploitation attempts, although direct detection is challenging due to the subtle nature of race conditions.