CVE-2025-11756: Google Chrome Use After Free Vulnerability

CVE-2025-11756 Overview

CVE-2025-11756 is a Use After Free vulnerability in the Safe Browsing component of Google Chrome prior to version 141.0.7390.107. This memory corruption flaw allows a remote attacker who has already compromised the renderer process to potentially perform out-of-bounds memory access via a crafted HTML page. Google has classified this vulnerability with a Chromium security severity rating of High.

Critical Impact

Successful exploitation enables attackers to perform arbitrary memory access operations, potentially leading to remote code execution, sandbox escape, or browser takeover after renderer compromise.

Affected Products

• Google Chrome prior to 141.0.7390.107
• Google Chrome on Microsoft Windows
• Google Chrome on Apple macOS
• Google Chrome on Linux

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-06 - CVE-2025-11756 published to NVD
• 2025-11-25 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-11756

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability belongs to the CWE-416 (Use After Free) category, a class of memory safety issues particularly dangerous in browser contexts. The flaw resides in Google Chrome's Safe Browsing component, which is responsible for protecting users from malicious websites, downloads, and extensions.

Use After Free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to reference memory after it has been freed. In the context of this vulnerability, an attacker who has already achieved renderer process compromise can craft malicious HTML content that triggers improper memory handling in the Safe Browsing component. This results in the browser accessing memory that has been deallocated, potentially allowing the attacker to read or write to arbitrary memory locations.

The attack requires user interaction in the form of visiting a malicious webpage, but the more significant prerequisite is that the attacker must have already compromised the renderer process through a separate vulnerability or exploit chain. This positions CVE-2025-11756 as a post-compromise escalation vector rather than an initial entry point.

Root Cause

The root cause stems from improper lifecycle management of memory objects within the Safe Browsing component. When certain Safe Browsing operations are performed, the code fails to properly track object references, leading to a scenario where memory can be freed while still being referenced by other parts of the codebase. This creates a dangling pointer condition that can be exploited through carefully crafted HTML content.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring the victim to navigate to an attacker-controlled webpage. The exploitation flow involves:

1. The attacker first compromises the Chrome renderer process through a separate vulnerability
2. The attacker serves a specially crafted HTML page designed to trigger the Use After Free condition in Safe Browsing
3. Upon parsing the malicious content, the browser incorrectly manages memory objects in the Safe Browsing component
4. The attacker leverages the dangling pointer to perform out-of-bounds memory access
5. This memory corruption can potentially be weaponized for sandbox escape or further code execution

The vulnerability mechanism involves triggering specific Safe Browsing API calls through HTML content that causes premature object deallocation. Technical details regarding the specific code paths involved can be found in the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-11756

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected Chrome browser crashes, particularly during Safe Browsing operations or when visiting suspicious websites
• Anomalous memory access patterns or segmentation faults in Chrome process logs
• Evidence of renderer process compromise or unusual child process behavior
• Chrome crash reports indicating memory corruption in Safe Browsing-related modules

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for Chrome versions below 141.0.7390.107 in enterprise asset inventories
• Implement endpoint detection rules for suspicious Chrome process behaviors, including abnormal memory allocation patterns
• Deploy browser extension monitoring to detect post-exploitation activities that may follow successful exploitation
• Enable Chrome's built-in crash reporting and analyze crash dumps for Safe Browsing-related memory corruption signatures

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure centralized logging for browser crash events across the enterprise
• Implement SentinelOne's behavioral AI to detect anomalous browser process chains indicative of renderer compromise
• Monitor network traffic for connections to known malicious domains that may serve exploit payloads
• Enable Chrome Enterprise policies for automatic updates and version compliance reporting

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-11756

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Google Chrome to version 141.0.7390.107 or later immediately across all systems
• Enable automatic Chrome updates via enterprise policy to ensure timely security patches
• Review browser configurations to ensure Safe Browsing protection remains enabled despite this component vulnerability
• Audit systems for indicators of prior compromise, particularly if running vulnerable Chrome versions

Patch Information

Google has addressed this vulnerability in Chrome version 141.0.7390.107. The fix involves proper memory lifecycle management in the Safe Browsing component to prevent use-after-free conditions. Full details are available in the Google Chrome Stable Update announcement.

Organizations should prioritize this patch deployment given the High severity rating and the potential for exploitation in multi-stage attack chains where renderer compromise has already occurred.

Workarounds

• No complete workaround exists; updating to the patched version is the definitive remediation
• Consider using alternative browsers temporarily for high-risk activities if immediate patching is not feasible
• Implement network-level controls to block access to known malicious domains that may serve exploit payloads
• Enable site isolation and strict-origin policies to limit renderer compromise impact
• Deploy SentinelOne endpoint protection to detect and prevent post-exploitation activities

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

# Check Chrome version on Windows PowerShell
(Get-Item "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe").VersionInfo.FileVersion

# Enterprise deployment - force Chrome update via policy
# Set UpdateDefault to 1 in Chrome enterprise policies