CVE-2025-3073: Google Chrome XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-3073 Overview

CVE-2025-3073 is a UI spoofing vulnerability affecting Google Chrome's Autofill feature. This inappropriate implementation flaw allows a remote attacker to perform UI spoofing attacks by crafting a malicious HTML page and convincing users to engage in specific UI gestures. The vulnerability exists in versions prior to 135.0.7049.52 and can potentially be exploited to deceive users into interacting with falsified interface elements.

Critical Impact

Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to spoof UI elements through the Autofill feature, potentially leading to credential theft, phishing attacks, or other social engineering exploits by misleading users with crafted HTML pages.

Affected Products

• Google Chrome versions prior to 135.0.7049.52
• All platforms running vulnerable Chrome versions (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Chromium-based browsers that incorporate the affected Autofill component

Discovery Timeline

• April 2, 2025 - CVE-2025-3073 published to NVD
• April 21, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-3073

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability (classified as CWE-451: User Interface (UI) Misrepresentation of Critical Information) stems from an inappropriate implementation within Chrome's Autofill functionality. The flaw allows attackers to manipulate how the browser presents Autofill-related UI elements to users.

The attack requires user interaction—specifically, the victim must be tricked into performing certain UI gestures while viewing a crafted HTML page. Once these conditions are met, the attacker can spoof the browser's user interface, potentially displaying misleading information that appears to originate from legitimate browser functionality.

This type of vulnerability is particularly concerning because Autofill typically handles sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, addresses, and credit card details. By spoofing the Autofill UI, attackers could potentially trick users into believing they are interacting with legitimate browser prompts when they are actually submitting data to malicious endpoints.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-3073 lies in improper validation and rendering of Autofill UI components within Google Chrome. The browser fails to adequately verify the authenticity and origin of Autofill prompts under certain conditions, allowing crafted HTML content to manipulate the appearance of these interface elements.

This implementation oversight enables malicious web pages to create deceptive UI elements that mimic legitimate Chrome Autofill dialogs, potentially confusing users about the true nature of the interface they are interacting with.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for CVE-2025-3073 is network-based and requires the following conditions:

1. Malicious Page Delivery: The attacker hosts or injects a specially crafted HTML page
2. User Visitation: The victim must navigate to the malicious page
3. UI Gesture Requirement: The victim must perform specific UI gestures (such as clicking, scrolling, or interacting with form fields)
4. Spoofed Interface Display: Upon gesture completion, the spoofed Autofill UI elements are displayed to the user

The vulnerability exploits the trust relationship between users and browser-native UI components. Since Autofill prompts typically originate from the browser itself rather than web content, users are conditioned to trust these elements, making UI spoofing attacks particularly effective.

Technical details about the specific HTML constructs and gestures required for exploitation can be found in the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-3073

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual Autofill behavior or unexpected Autofill prompts appearing on websites
• Users reporting credential submission to sites they did not intend to authenticate with
• Web traffic to domains that mimic legitimate services following Autofill interactions
• Browser logs showing interaction with crafted HTML elements designed to trigger specific UI gestures

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for anomalous web pages with suspicious HTML structures targeting browser UI components
• Implement endpoint detection rules that identify unusual DOM manipulation patterns associated with UI spoofing
• Deploy web filtering solutions to block known malicious domains hosting exploit pages
• Analyze user behavior for patterns consistent with social engineering attacks via browser UI manipulation

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable enhanced browser logging to capture Autofill-related events and interactions
• Deploy SentinelOne's browser protection capabilities to detect and block suspicious web content
• Monitor network traffic for connections to newly registered or suspicious domains following Autofill interactions
• Implement user education programs to raise awareness about UI spoofing attacks and how to identify legitimate browser prompts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-3073

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Google Chrome to version 135.0.7049.52 or later immediately
• Enable automatic browser updates to ensure timely deployment of security patches
• Educate users about the risks of interacting with unexpected Autofill prompts
• Consider temporarily disabling Autofill for sensitive data until patching is complete
• Review Chromium-based browsers in your environment for similar vulnerabilities

Patch Information

Google has addressed this vulnerability in Chrome version 135.0.7049.52. The security update was announced via the Google Chrome Update Announcement. Organizations should prioritize updating all Chrome installations to this version or later.

For enterprise environments, administrators can use Chrome's group policy or management console to enforce the minimum version requirement across managed devices.

Workarounds

• Disable Chrome's Autofill feature for passwords and payment information in Settings > Autofill if immediate patching is not possible
• Use browser extensions that provide additional UI verification layers
• Implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers on organizational websites to reduce attack surface
• Consider using Chrome Enterprise policies to restrict Autofill functionality until patching is complete

# Chrome Enterprise policy example to disable Autofill
# Windows Registry location:
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome

# Linux/Mac managed preferences:
# Set AutofillAddressEnabled to false
# Set AutofillCreditCardEnabled to false

# Example for Chrome Enterprise JSON policy:
{
  "AutofillAddressEnabled": false,
  "AutofillCreditCardEnabled": false,
  "PasswordManagerEnabled": false
}