CVE-2026-121178
Description
An use after free flaw was found in the Aura component of the Chromium browser.
Upstream bug(s):
Statement
Red Hat Product Security rates the severity of this flaw as determined by the Google Chrome Security Advisory.
Mitigation
--- CME Mitigation Guidance (2026-11-04) ---
Disclaimer: The following mitigation solutions are provided as a courtesy, pending the application of an official patch. This content was generated utilizing AI tools in conjunction with data from https://cmetaxonomy.org. Customers are advised to independently evaluate and test these temporary mitigations within their own infrastructure.
The highest-value action is to enforce Control Flow Integrity and Shadow Call Stack to validate indirect call targets against hijacked vtables in the Chromium browser process: upgrade to Google Chrome 157.0.8103.38 (or the fixed Chromium builds), which resolves the use-after-free condition in the Aura windowing component to prevent sandbox escape, closing all 2 injection vectors (crafted HTML page, compromised renderer IPC exploitation). Until patched, this is a concern on Chromium and Google Chrome installations across Windows, Mac, and Linux, so restrict browsing to trusted web pages and limit exposure to untrusted renderer processes to avoid triggering browser IPC exploitation. As a compensating measure, enable Address Space Layout Randomization to randomize the Chromium browser process memory space and impede gadget chaining, enforce NX/XD bit non-executable memory permissions on heap pages to block direct shellcode execution, ensure full RELRO and PIE write-protection on relocation tables to impede arbitrary code execution in the browser process, and deploy EDR agents to monitor and detect anomalous child process execution and post-exploitation activity following sandbox escapes. These controls limit blast radius and contain exploitation, but they do not fix the underlying use-after-free defect — apply the upstream patch to fully remediate.
Highest-impact CME: CME-113 Control Flow Integrity (CFI / Shadow Call Stack) (high)
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
The use of previously freed memory may corrupt valid data, if the memory area in question has been allocated and used properly elsewhere.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
If chunk consolidation occurs after the use of previously freed data, the process may crash when invalid data is used as chunk information.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
Read operations on freed memory can sometimes leak sensitive information instead of causing a crash
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
If malicious data is entered before chunk consolidation can take place, it may be possible to take advantage of a write-what-where primitive to execute arbitrary code. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.
Frequently Asked Questions
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