CVE-2024-9954: Google Chrome Use After Free Vulnerability

CVE-2024-9954 Overview

CVE-2024-9954 is a use after free vulnerability in the AI component of Google Chrome prior to version 130.0.6723.58. This memory corruption flaw allows a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption through a crafted HTML page. The vulnerability was assigned a Chromium security severity rating of High, indicating significant risk to users who visit malicious web pages.

Use after free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to reference memory after it has been freed, potentially allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code, cause crashes, or corrupt data. In the context of a web browser like Chrome, this type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous as it can be triggered simply by visiting a malicious website.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can potentially achieve arbitrary code execution through heap corruption by luring users to specially crafted malicious web pages, compromising system confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Affected Products

• Google Chrome versions prior to 130.0.6723.58

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-10-15 - CVE-2024-9954 published to NVD
• 2024-10-22 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-9954

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability resides in the AI component of Google Chrome and belongs to the CWE-416 (Use After Free) classification. The flaw enables heap corruption when the browser processes specially crafted HTML content. The attack requires user interaction—specifically, a victim must navigate to a malicious webpage or be redirected to one.

The vulnerability is exploitable over the network without requiring authentication, though user interaction is necessary. If successfully exploited, attackers can achieve complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system. This makes the vulnerability particularly attractive to threat actors conducting watering hole attacks or targeted phishing campaigns.

Root Cause

The root cause is a use after free condition in Chrome's AI component. This occurs when memory that has been deallocated (freed) is subsequently accessed by the program. In this case, the AI component fails to properly manage memory references, allowing an attacker to manipulate the freed memory region and potentially gain control over program execution flow.

Use after free vulnerabilities typically arise from:

• Improper lifecycle management of objects
• Missing or incorrect reference counting
• Race conditions between memory deallocation and access
• Failure to null-out pointers after freeing associated memory

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker would craft a malicious HTML page designed to trigger the use after free condition in Chrome's AI component. The attack flow typically follows this pattern:

1. Attacker creates a specially crafted HTML page containing elements that trigger the vulnerable code path in Chrome's AI component
2. Victim is lured to visit the malicious page through phishing, malvertising, or compromised legitimate websites
3. The crafted content causes the browser to free memory that is subsequently accessed
4. The attacker's payload manipulates the freed memory region to achieve heap corruption
5. Successful exploitation may lead to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the Chrome process

The exploitation mechanism leverages heap corruption techniques common to use after free vulnerabilities. For detailed technical information, refer to the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-9954

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected Chrome browser crashes, particularly when visiting unfamiliar websites
• Chrome processes exhibiting abnormal memory usage patterns
• Security tools detecting heap corruption or memory manipulation attempts in Chrome processes
• Suspicious network traffic following browser crashes indicating potential data exfiltration

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for Chrome versions prior to 130.0.6723.58 across the enterprise environment
• Implement endpoint detection rules to identify memory corruption attempts targeting Chrome processes
• Deploy network-based detection for malicious HTML content known to exploit use after free conditions
• Use browser telemetry and crash reporting to identify potential exploitation attempts

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable Chrome's built-in crash reporting to identify patterns of unexplained crashes
• Implement application whitelisting and monitor for unauthorized code execution from browser processes
• Configure SIEM rules to correlate browser crashes with suspicious follow-on activity
• Monitor for child processes spawned from Chrome that deviate from normal behavior patterns

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-9954

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Google Chrome to version 130.0.6723.58 or later immediately across all systems
• Enable automatic updates in Chrome to ensure timely delivery of security patches
• Review Chrome browser inventory to identify any unpatched installations
• Educate users about the risks of visiting untrusted websites until patching is complete

Patch Information

Google has released a security update addressing this vulnerability in Chrome version 130.0.6723.58. The patch was announced on October 15, 2024. Organizations should prioritize deployment of this update due to the severity of the vulnerability and the potential for remote exploitation.

For official patch details, refer to the Google Chrome Update Announcement.

Workarounds

• Restrict access to untrusted websites through web filtering until patches can be applied
• Consider deploying browser isolation technology to contain potential exploitation attempts
• Implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers on internal web applications
• Use Chrome's site isolation feature to limit the impact of potential compromises

# Verify Chrome version on Linux/macOS
google-chrome --version

# Force Chrome update check (requires browser restart)
# Navigate to: chrome://settings/help

# Enterprise deployment: Use Chrome Browser Cloud Management
# or deploy via SCCM/Intune with version enforcement policies