CVE-2016-5221: Google Chrome type confusion in ANGLE libGLESv2

CVE-2016-5221 · Severity: medium · CVSS 6.3 · Published 2017-01-19

A vulnerability was identified in Google Chrome's graphics engine (ANGLE) that could allow a malicious website to bypass security checks. By tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted web page, an attacker could potentially access sensitive information or cause the browser to crash. This affects users on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android platforms.

Technologies: Google Chrome, Google Chromium. Vendors: Google.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2016-5221 exploited in the wild?
No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2016-5221 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2016-5221?
Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 6.3, published 19 January 2017.
Which products and versions are affected?
Google Chromium < 55.0.2883.75.
Is there a fix for CVE-2016-5221?
A patch was published on 2016-12-05: Gentoo released updated Chromium packages. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2016-5221 attacked?
It is attacked over the network, in a web application.
Am I affected by CVE-2016-5221?
Check whether you run Google Chrome or Google Chromium at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Technical details

A type confusion vulnerability exists in the libGLESv2 component of the Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine (ANGLE) used by Google Chrome. The flaw is rooted in an integer overflow (CWE-190) that occurs during the processing of graphics content. A remote attacker can exploit this by hosting a malicious HTML page; when a victim visits the page, the attacker can bypass buffer validation. This could lead to out-of-bounds memory access, potentially resulting in information disclosure, data integrity issues, or a denial-of-service (crash). The issue was resolved in Chrome version 55.0.2883.75 for desktop and 55.0.2883.84 for Android.

Affected products

  • Google Chrome < 55.0.2883.75 (Desktop), < 55.0.2883.84 (Android)
  • Google Chromium < 55.0.2883.75

Timeline

  • 2016-12-01: advisory: Google released Chrome 55.0.2883.75 for desktop platforms.
  • 2016-12-05: patched: Gentoo released updated Chromium packages.
  • 2016-12-07: patched: Red Hat released security updates for chromium-browser.
  • 2017-01-19: disclosed: NVD published the CVE record.

References

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