CVE-2026-4446: Google Chrome Use After Free Vulnerability

CVE-2026-4446 Overview

CVE-2026-4446 is a Use After Free vulnerability affecting the WebRTC component in Google Chrome prior to version 146.0.7680.153. This memory corruption flaw allows a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption through a crafted HTML page, which could lead to arbitrary code execution within the browser context.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this heap corruption vulnerability through malicious web pages, potentially achieving code execution on victim systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms.

Affected Products

• Google Chrome prior to version 146.0.7680.153
• Google Chrome on Microsoft Windows
• Google Chrome on Apple macOS
• Google Chrome on Linux

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-20 - CVE-2026-4446 published to NVD
• 2026-03-20 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-4446

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-416 (Use After Free), a memory corruption issue that occurs when a program continues to use a pointer after the memory it references has been freed. In the context of WebRTC within Google Chrome, this flaw exists in how the browser handles certain WebRTC objects during their lifecycle.

When exploited, an attacker can cause the browser to reference freed memory that has been reallocated for other purposes. By carefully crafting heap memory contents through JavaScript manipulation, an attacker may achieve heap corruption that could be leveraged for further exploitation, including potential arbitrary code execution.

The vulnerability requires user interaction—specifically, a victim must navigate to or be redirected to a malicious web page containing the crafted HTML and JavaScript payload. Once triggered, the use-after-free condition can lead to memory corruption with impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2026-4446 lies in improper memory management within the WebRTC implementation in Chromium. Specifically, the vulnerability occurs when WebRTC objects are freed but references to those objects remain active in the code path. When these stale references are subsequently dereferenced, the browser accesses memory that may have been reallocated, leading to heap corruption.

This type of vulnerability typically arises from complex object lifecycle management in asynchronous code paths, where callback functions or event handlers retain references to objects that have been destroyed elsewhere in the codebase.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for CVE-2026-4446 is network-based, requiring a victim to visit a malicious website. The attack flow typically involves:

1. An attacker hosts or injects malicious content into a web page
2. The victim navigates to the compromised page
3. JavaScript on the page manipulates WebRTC objects to trigger the use-after-free condition
4. The freed memory is reallocated with attacker-controlled data
5. When the stale pointer is dereferenced, the attacker's payload is executed

The vulnerability can be triggered through carefully crafted HTML and JavaScript that manipulates WebRTC peer connections and related objects. Technical details are available in the Chromium Issue Tracker Entry.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-4446

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual Chrome browser crashes, particularly when visiting unfamiliar websites
• Memory access violations or heap corruption errors in Chrome crash reports
• Unexpected WebRTC-related activity in browser processes
• Suspicious network connections initiated from Chrome to unknown endpoints

Detection Strategies

• Monitor Chrome browser versions across the enterprise and flag instances running versions prior to 146.0.7680.153
• Implement network monitoring to detect connections to known malicious domains serving exploit kits
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions capable of identifying heap spray and memory corruption exploitation techniques
• Analyze browser crash dumps for patterns consistent with use-after-free exploitation

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable Chrome crash reporting and review crash patterns for WebRTC-related failures
• Implement browser telemetry collection to track version compliance across endpoints
• Configure web proxy logging to capture suspicious HTML/JavaScript content delivery
• Monitor for anomalous child process spawning from Chrome browser processes

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-4446

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Google Chrome to version 146.0.7680.153 or later immediately across all systems
• Enable automatic updates for Chrome browsers to receive future security patches promptly
• Consider implementing browser isolation technologies to contain potential exploitation attempts
• Review and restrict access to untrusted websites through web filtering policies

Patch Information

Google has released a security update addressing this vulnerability. Users should update to Chrome version 146.0.7680.153 or later. The patch is available through Chrome's automatic update mechanism or can be downloaded directly from Google.

For complete details, see the Google Chrome Update Announcement.

Workarounds

• Disable WebRTC functionality in Chrome via enterprise policies if not required for business operations
• Implement strict content security policies to limit execution of untrusted JavaScript
• Use browser isolation or sandboxing solutions to contain potential browser-based attacks
• Restrict browsing to trusted sites until patches can be applied

# Chrome Enterprise Policy to disable WebRTC (if not needed)
# Add to Chrome policies JSON configuration
{
  "WebRtcLocalIpsAllowedUrls": [],
  "WebRtcEventLogCollectionAllowed": false
}