CVE-2026-15765: Google Chrome Use After Free Vulnerability

CVE-2026-15765 Overview

CVE-2026-15765 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Ozone component of Google Chrome. The flaw affects Chrome versions prior to 150.0.7871.125 and is tracked under [CWE-416]. A remote attacker can trigger heap corruption by hosting a crafted HTML page and convincing a user to perform specific UI gestures. Successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution within the browser process. Google's Chromium team rated the internal severity as Critical, while the CVSS base score is 7.5.

Critical Impact
Remote attackers can achieve heap corruption in Chrome's Ozone display layer, potentially leading to browser process compromise via a malicious web page combined with targeted user interaction.

Affected Products

Google Chrome Desktop (Stable channel) versions prior to 150.0.7871.125
Chromium-based builds that embed the vulnerable Ozone graphics abstraction layer
All operating system platforms where Chrome uses the Ozone backend (notably Linux and Chrome OS)

Discovery Timeline

2026-07-14 - CVE-2026-15765 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-07-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-15765

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in Ozone, Chrome's platform abstraction layer for window system integration and graphics buffer handling. Ozone mediates between the browser's compositor and the underlying display server, managing surfaces, input events, and native window resources.

A use-after-free occurs when Ozone retains and dereferences a pointer to an object whose backing memory has already been released. When an attacker triggers the freeing path and then reuses the dangling reference, the process operates on attacker-influenced heap contents. This can corrupt object vtables, function pointers, or adjacent metadata, providing a primitive to hijack control flow inside the renderer or browser process.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper object lifetime management in the Ozone platform code. A component holds a raw reference to an Ozone-owned resource across an operation that destroys or reallocates that resource. The subsequent access dereferences freed memory, which is the definition of [CWE-416]. See the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry for the upstream commit and reproduction context.

Attack Vector

Exploitation is remote but requires user interaction. An attacker delivers a crafted HTML page, typically via a phishing link, malvertising, or a compromised site. The page must induce the victim to perform specific UI gestures such as focused clicks, drag operations, or window manipulations that drive the vulnerable Ozone code path. Once the use-after-free is triggered, the attacker leverages heap grooming techniques through DOM allocations, ArrayBuffer objects, or graphics resources to shape the freed slot and pivot toward code execution.

No verified public proof-of-concept code is available.
Refer to the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry for authoritative technical details:
https://issues.chromium.org/issues/518007484

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-15765

Indicators of Compromise

Chrome renderer or GPU process crashes with heap corruption signatures such as SIGSEGV in Ozone-related stack frames
Unexpected child process spawns from chrome.exe or the Chrome browser binary following web browsing activity
Outbound connections from Chrome to newly registered or low-reputation domains hosting HTML content
Browser telemetry showing repeated tab crashes on the same URL across multiple users

Detection Strategies

Deploy endpoint detection tooling to monitor Chrome process behavior for post-exploitation activity such as shellcode execution or process injection
Inspect web proxy and DNS logs for user visits to suspicious domains coinciding with browser crash events
Correlate Chrome version telemetry with asset inventory to identify hosts running unpatched builds below 150.0.7871.125

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on Chrome crash dumps referencing Ozone modules and forward them to a centralized analysis pipeline
Track process lineage where Chrome spawns interpreters, shells, or LOLBins immediately after page loads
Monitor for unusual file writes or persistence attempts in user profile directories originating from Chrome child processes

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-15765

Immediate Actions Required

Update Google Chrome to version 150.0.7871.125 or later on all managed endpoints
Force restart of Chrome across the fleet to ensure the patched binary is loaded into memory
Audit Chromium-based embedded applications and internal tools for vulnerable Ozone code and update accordingly

Patch Information

Google released the fix in the Stable channel update documented in the Google Chrome Security Update advisory. Administrators should verify that automatic updates are enabled and that endpoints have relaunched Chrome to apply version 150.0.7871.125 or newer. The underlying commit is tracked in the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry.

Workarounds

Restrict browsing to trusted sites via enterprise policy until patching completes
Deploy URL filtering and DNS security controls to block access to known malicious domains
Educate users to avoid unexpected UI prompts, drag-and-drop requests, or unusual interaction demands on untrusted pages
Consider enabling Chrome's Site Isolation and Enhanced Safe Browsing policies to reduce exploit reliability

bash

# Verify installed Chrome version on Linux
google-chrome --version

# Windows: query installed Chrome version via registry
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\BLBeacon" /v version

# Force update on managed Linux endpoints
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade google-chrome-stable