CVE-2026-95348 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE • 09/29/2026
Use after free in Bluetooth in Google Chrome prior to 154.0.8037.57 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/29/2026
The vulnerability described constitutes a critical use-after-free flaw within the Bluetooth subsystem of Google Chrome, specifically affecting versions prior to 154.0.8037.57. This memory corruption issue arises when the browser fails to properly manage the lifecycle of objects associated with Bluetooth interfaces after they have been deallocated from memory. In modern web browsers like Chrome, security is heavily reliant on a multi-process architecture where renderer processes are isolated within sandboxes to limit the impact of potential exploits. However, this specific vulnerability allows an attacker who has already achieved code execution within a compromised renderer process to escalate privileges and break out of that sandbox environment. The root cause lies in the improper handling of pointers or references to Bluetooth-related data structures after they have been freed, leading to dangling pointer dereferences that can be manipulated by malicious actors.
From a technical perspective, use-after-free vulnerabilities are among the most dangerous classes of memory safety errors because they provide attackers with significant control over program execution flow. When an object is freed but remains accessible through existing references, writing data to those stale pointers allows for arbitrary read and write operations in memory. In the context of Chrome's Bluetooth implementation, this likely involves interactions between JavaScript running on a webpage and native C++ code handling low-level hardware communication protocols. An attacker can craft a malicious HTML page that triggers specific sequences of Bluetooth API calls designed to free an object while retaining references to it. By carefully controlling the contents written into the freed memory region through subsequent operations, the attacker can achieve arbitrary code execution with higher privileges than those granted to the renderer process.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to its potential for remote exploitation via a crafted web page. Although initial access requires compromising the renderer process, which typically necessitates some form of prior compromise or successful exploit chain initiation, the ability to escape the sandbox represents a critical security boundary failure. Once outside the sandbox, an attacker gains unrestricted access to the host operating system resources, potentially leading to full device takeover, data exfiltration, installation of persistent malware, and lateral movement within networked environments. This escalation path undermines the fundamental trust model of web browsers, where users expect that visiting a malicious website will not result in direct compromise of their underlying machine infrastructure.
This vulnerability aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration identifier CWE-416, which defines use-after-free errors as situations where pointers are used after they have been freed, often leading to crashes or arbitrary code execution. Furthermore, the exploitation technique maps directly to MITRE ATT&CK techniques related to process injection and defense evasion, specifically leveraging memory corruption to bypass sandbox restrictions such as T1055 Process Injection or T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution depending on the specific payload delivery mechanism employed by the attacker. The high severity rating assigned by Chromium security reflects the critical nature of breaking out of renderer isolation, a key component in mitigating zero-day attacks against end-users browsing untrusted content.
Mitigation strategies primarily involve applying the vendor-provided patch included in Google Chrome version 154.0.8037.57 and later releases. These updates typically include rigorous memory management improvements within the Bluetooth interface code, ensuring that all references to objects are invalidated immediately upon deallocation or implementing safe pointer handling mechanisms such as smart pointers with strict ownership semantics. For organizations relying on Chrome for enterprise environments, it is imperative to enforce automatic update policies to ensure rapid deployment of these security fixes across all endpoints. Additionally, deploying endpoint detection and response solutions capable of monitoring for anomalous memory access patterns can provide an additional layer of defense against exploitation attempts targeting this class of vulnerabilities before patches are fully deployed.