CVE-2025-13630: Google Chrome V8 RCE Vulnerability

CVE-2025-13630 Overview

CVE-2025-13630 is a Type Confusion vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript engine used by Google Chrome. This vulnerability exists in versions prior to 143.0.7499.41 and allows a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. The vulnerability has been classified as High severity by the Chromium security team.

Type confusion vulnerabilities occur when a program accesses a resource using an incompatible type, which can lead to memory corruption. In the context of V8, this can allow attackers to manipulate JavaScript objects in ways that corrupt the heap, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution in the browser context.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can potentially achieve arbitrary code execution by exploiting heap corruption through maliciously crafted web pages, compromising user systems simply by visiting a malicious website.

Affected Products

• Google Chrome prior to version 143.0.7499.41 on Windows
• Google Chrome prior to version 143.0.7499.41 on macOS
• Google Chrome prior to version 143.0.7499.41 on Linux

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-12-02 - CVE CVE-2025-13630 published to NVD
• 2025-12-04 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-13630

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability (CWE-843: Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type) exists in the V8 JavaScript engine, which is Chrome's high-performance JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. Type confusion in V8 occurs when the engine incorrectly assumes the type of an object during JavaScript execution, leading to operations being performed on memory structures that don't match the expected layout.

When V8's Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler makes incorrect assumptions about object types, it can generate optimized code that accesses object properties at the wrong memory offsets. An attacker can craft JavaScript code that triggers these incorrect type assumptions, causing the engine to read or write data to unintended memory locations.

The exploitation of this vulnerability requires user interaction—specifically, the victim must navigate to a malicious webpage containing the crafted HTML and JavaScript payload. Once the malicious code executes within the browser context, it can corrupt heap memory structures, potentially allowing the attacker to gain control of program execution flow.

Root Cause

The root cause lies in improper type validation within the V8 JavaScript engine. During JIT compilation and optimization phases, V8 makes assumptions about object types to generate faster machine code. When these assumptions are violated through carefully crafted JavaScript, the type confusion allows the attacker to manipulate memory in unintended ways.

V8's optimization passes may fail to properly verify that objects conform to expected type constraints, allowing crafted JavaScript to create situations where the engine treats one type of object as another. This misinterpretation leads to incorrect memory access patterns that can corrupt heap metadata or object data.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker must convince a victim to visit a malicious website containing specially crafted HTML and JavaScript code. The attack flow typically proceeds as follows:

1. The attacker hosts a malicious webpage containing crafted JavaScript designed to trigger the type confusion
2. The victim navigates to the malicious page via a link in an email, social media, or other delivery mechanism
3. The crafted JavaScript executes in the V8 engine, exploiting the type confusion to corrupt heap memory
4. The attacker leverages the heap corruption to achieve further exploitation, potentially including arbitrary code execution within the browser sandbox

The exploitation technique typically involves manipulating JavaScript object shapes and triggering JIT compilation with specific input patterns that cause the engine to misidentify object types during optimized code execution.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-13630

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual Chrome process crashes or unexpected browser instability when visiting specific websites
• Abnormal memory consumption patterns in Chrome processes that may indicate heap spray or corruption attempts
• Chrome crash dumps referencing V8 or JavaScript engine components with memory access violations
• Network traffic to suspicious domains delivering potentially malicious JavaScript content

Detection Strategies

• Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of monitoring browser process behavior for anomalous memory operations
• Implement network-based threat detection to identify known malicious domains serving exploit code
• Monitor for Chrome crash reports that indicate V8-related memory corruption issues
• Utilize browser telemetry to identify unusual JavaScript execution patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable Chrome's built-in Safe Browsing protection to block known malicious sites
• Monitor endpoint logs for Chrome process crashes with exception codes related to memory access violations
• Review proxy and firewall logs for connections to newly registered or suspicious domains
• Consider implementing browser isolation solutions for high-risk users to contain potential exploitation

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-13630

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Google Chrome to version 143.0.7499.41 or later immediately across all endpoints
• Enable automatic updates for Chrome to ensure timely delivery of security patches
• Consider temporarily restricting access to untrusted websites until patching is complete
• Implement browser isolation for users who cannot be immediately patched

Patch Information

Google has released Chrome version 143.0.7499.41 which addresses this vulnerability. Organizations should prioritize deployment of this update across all managed Chrome installations. The update is available through Chrome's built-in update mechanism and through enterprise deployment tools.

For detailed information about this security update, refer to the Google Chrome Stable Channel Update. Additional technical details may be available in the Chromium Issue Tracker.

Workarounds

• Enable Chrome's Site Isolation feature to provide additional process-level separation between sites
• Consider using Chrome's Enhanced Safe Browsing mode for improved protection against malicious sites
• Implement network-level controls to block access to known malicious domains until patching is complete
• Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) headers on internal web applications to limit JavaScript execution from untrusted sources

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

# Force Chrome update check via command line (Windows)
# Navigate to chrome://settings/help in browser to trigger update

# Enterprise deployment: Use Group Policy or MDM to enforce minimum version
# Chrome minimum version policy: 143.0.7499.41