Executive brief
WebKitGTK is a web rendering engine used by various Linux applications to display web content. A security flaw in this engine allows a malicious website to cause the application to crash or potentially execute unauthorized code by mishandling memory. This could lead to the theft of sensitive user data or a complete disruption of the affected application's services.
Technical details
A classic buffer overflow (CWE-120) exists in WebKitGTK due to improper memory handling when processing web content. An attacker can exploit this by enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted website, leading to an out-of-bounds write or memory corruption. This vulnerability can result in a denial-of-service (process crash) or potentially arbitrary code execution within the context of the application using the WebKitGTK library. The issue is addressed in WebKitGTK version 2.50.3 and various Red Hat security updates (e.g., RHSA-2025:22789).
Affected products
- The WebKitGTK Team WebKitGTK < 2.50.3
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 webkit2gtk3 < 0:2.50.3-1.el8_10
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 webkit2gtk3 < 0:2.50.3-1.el9_5
Timeline
- 2025-12-04: disclosed
- 2025-12-08: patched: Red Hat released security updates for RHEL 8 and 9.
References
- https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit
- https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22789
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22790
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23110
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23433
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23434