Google Fixes High-Severity Chrome Flaw Actively Exploited in the Wild

Google has rolled out security fixes to address a high-severity security flaw in its Chrome browser that it said has come under active exploitation in the wild.

Tracked as CVE-2024-7971, the vulnerability has been described as a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine.

“Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 128.0.6613.84 allowed a remote attacker to exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page,” according to a description of the bug in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

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The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) have been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on August 19, 2024.

No additional details about the nature of the attacks exploiting the flaw or the identity of the threat actors that may be weaponizing it have been released, primarily to ensure that a majority of the users are updated with a fix.

The tech giant, however, acknowledged in a terse statement that it’s “aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-7971 exists in the wild.” It’s worth mentioning that CVE-2024-7971 is the third type confusion bug that it has patched in V8 this year after CVE-2024-4947 and CVE-2024-5274.

Google has so far addressed nine zero-days in Chrome since the start of 2024, including three that were demonstrated at Pwn2Own 2024 –

• CVE-2024-0519 – Out-of-bounds memory access in V8
• CVE-2024-2886 – Use-after-free in WebCodecs (demonstrated at Pwn2Own 2024)
• CVE-2024-2887 – Type confusion in WebAssembly (demonstrated at Pwn2Own 2024)
• CVE-2024-3159 – Out-of-bounds memory access in V8 (demonstrated at Pwn2Own 2024)
• CVE-2024-4671 – Use-after-free in Visuals
• CVE-2024-4761 – Out-of-bounds write in V8
• CVE-2024-4947 – Type confusion in V8
• CVE-2024-5274 – Type confusion in V8

Users are recommended to upgrade to Chrome version 128.0.6613.84/.85 for Windows and macOS, and version 128.0.6613.84 for Linux to mitigate potential threats.

Users of Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi are also advised to apply the fixes as and when they become available.

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