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The vulnerability CVE-2026-9992 resides in the Network component of Google Chrome, specifically a Use After Free (UAF) condition triggered during the processing of crafted HTTP responses or resource requests. When a browser navigates to a malicious HTML page, the page can initiate a sequence of network operations that interact with Chrome’s internal object lifecycle management. In the Network stack, certain objects are allocated to handle specific request contexts, such as socket pools, URL loaders, or DNS resolution callbacks. An attacker can craft JavaScript and HTML that abruptly cancels or redirects these requests while the underlying network object is still in active use. This race condition leads to the object being freed from memory prematurely, yet its pointer remains dereferenced later in the execution flow. The freed memory region may then be reallocated with attacker-controlled data via techniques like heap spraying, enabling the attacker to overwrite virtual function tables or critical control structures. Once the dangling pointer is accessed, the browser executes arbitrary code within the sandboxed renderer process. The exploit relies on precise timing and memory layout manipulation, typically using WebAssembly or typed arrays to achieve predictable heap grooming. The vulnerability affects all platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux because the Network component is shared across them. The fix in version 148.0.7778.216 involves validating object references and adding proper reference counting to ensure that no stale pointers are used after the underlying resource is destroyed. This patch effectively removes the dangling pointer path by making the network callbacks weakly bound to the request context. The severity is marked High because although execution occurs inside the sandbox, a successful compromise still grants the attacker full control over the renderer, allowing data theft, phishing, or further escalation via a separate sandbox escape chain.
DailyCVE Form:
Platform: Google Chrome
Version: < 148.0.7778.216
Vulnerability : Use After Free
Severity: High
date: May 28, 2026
Prediction: Already Patched
What Undercode Say:
Analytics – Check current Chrome version
google-chrome –version
Expected output for vulnerable: 148.0.7778.215 or lower
Command to list installed versions on Debian/Ubuntu
dpkg -l | grep google-chrome-stable
Fetch the exact build number from the user agent via curl
curl -s -A “Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/148.0.7778.215 Safari/537.36” https://example.com
Monitor network stack crashes using system logs
dmesg | grep -i chrome | grep -i “use-after-free”
Statistical query for vulnerable population (bash simulation)
echo “Vulnerable builds: 148.0.7778.0 to 148.0.7778.215” > /tmp/cve_stats.txt
Trigger version fingerprint from DevTools protocol
curl -X POST http://localhost:9222/json/version | jq ‘.Browser’
Exploit: (Educational Purposes!)
Protection:
Update to Google Chrome version 148.0.7778.216 or later immediately. Enable site isolation via chrome://flags/enable-site-per-process to limit cross-site memory leaks. Deploy endpoint detection rules that monitor abnormal renderer crashes. Disable JavaScript globally for untrusted origins using Content Settings. Utilize Chrome’s built-in sandboxing (seccomp-bpf on Linux, Win32k lockdown on Windows) and ensure the browser process is not running with elevated privileges. For enterprise, apply group policy to restrict automatic updates and enforce the fixed version.
Impact:
Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code within the Chrome renderer sandbox by tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted HTML page. The attack requires no user interaction beyond browsing. Within the sandbox, the attacker can read sensitive data from the current browsing context, including cookies, session tokens, and autofill information. The compromised renderer can also serve as a pivot point for further attacks against the browser process or host system if combined with a sandbox escape vulnerability. This flaw exposes all users across Windows, macOS, and Linux, potentially leading to complete loss of confidentiality and integrity for the affected browsing session.
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Sources:
Reported By: nvd.nist.gov
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