Google Fixes Second Actively Exploited Chrome Zero-Day Bug This Year

Google has fixed an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability in the Chrome 89.0.4389.72 version released today, March 2nd, 2021, to the Stable desktop channel for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.

“Google is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-21166 exists in the wild,” the Google Chrome 89.0.4389.72 announcement reads.

This version is now rolling out to the entire userbase. You can upgrade to Chrome 89 by going to 

Settings -> Help -> About Google Chrome.

The Google Chrome web browser will then automatically check for the new update and install it when available.

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No details about ongoing attacks

Google rated the zero-day vulnerability as high severity and described it as an “Object lifecycle issue in audio.” The security flaw was reported last month by Alison Huffman of Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2021-02-11.

Although Google says that it is aware of reports that a CVE-2021-21166 exploit exists in the wild, the search giant did not share any info regarding the threat actors behind these attacks.

“Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix,” Google added.

“We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.”

Until more information on the zero-day is disclosed, Chrome users should have more time to install the security update released today to prevent any ongoing attacks.

The lack of extra info will also prevent additional threat actors from creating exploits targeting this zero-day.

Second Chrome zero-day patched this year

Google fixed another Chrome zero-day actively exploited in the wild in February, a  heap buffer overflow bug in V8 tracked as CVE-2021-2114 and rated as high severity.

Last year, Google fixed five more actively exploited Chrome zero-days within a single month, between October 20 and November 12.

Today’s Chrome release addresses 47 other security vulnerabilities contributed by external researchers:

• [1129361] High CVE-2021-21158: Insufficient data validation in iOSWeb. Reported by Anonymous on 2020-09-17
• [1171049] High CVE-2021-21159: Heap buffer overflow in TabStrip. Reported by Khalil Zhani on 2021-01-27
• [1170531] High CVE-2021-21160: Heap buffer overflow in WebAudio. Reported by Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos on 2021-01-25
• [1173702] High CVE-2021-21161: Heap buffer overflow in TabStrip. Reported by Khalil Zhani on 2021-02-02
• [1172054] High CVE-2021-21162: Use after free in WebRTC. Reported by Anonymous on 2021-01-29
• [1111239] High CVE-2021-21163: Insufficient data validation in Reader Mode. Reported by Alison Huffman, Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2020-07-30
• [1164846] High CVE-2021-21164: Insufficient data validation in iOSWeb. Reported by Muneaki Nishimura (nishimunea) on 2021-01-11
• [1174582] High CVE-2021-21165: Object lifecycle issue in audio. Reported by Alison Huffman, Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2021-02-04
• [1161144] Medium CVE-2021-21167: Use after free in bookmarks. Reported by Leecraso and Guang Gong of 360 Alpha Lab on 2020-12-22
• [1152226] Medium CVE-2021-21168: Insufficient policy enforcement in appcache. Reported by Luan Herrera (@lbherrera_) on 2020-11-24
• [1166138] Medium CVE-2021-21169: Out of bounds memory access in V8. Reported by Bohan Liu (@P4nda20371774) of Tencent Security Xuanwu Lab on 2021-01-13
• [1111646] Medium CVE-2021-21170: Incorrect security UI in Loader. Reported by David Erceg on 2020-07-31
• [1152894] Medium CVE-2021-21171: Incorrect security UI in TabStrip and Navigation. Reported by Irvan Kurniawan (sourc7) on 2020-11-25
• [1150810] Medium CVE-2021-21172: Insufficient policy enforcement in File System API. Reported by Maciej Pulikowski on 2020-11-19
• [1154250] Medium CVE-2021-21173: Side-channel information leakage in Network Internals. Reported by Tom Van Goethem from imec-DistriNet, KU Leuven on 2020-12-01
• [1158010] Medium CVE-2021-21174: Inappropriate implementation in Referrer. Reported by Ashish Gautam Kamble on 2020-12-11
• [1146651] Medium CVE-2021-21175: Inappropriate implementation in Site isolation. Reported by Jun Kokatsu, Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2020-11-07
• [1170584] Medium CVE-2021-21176: Inappropriate implementation in full screen mode. Reported by Luan Herrera (@lbherrera_) on 2021-01-26
• [1173879] Medium CVE-2021-21177: Insufficient policy enforcement in Autofill. Reported by Abdulrahman Alqabandi, Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2021-02-3
• [1174186] Medium CVE-2021-21178: Inappropriate implementation in Compositing. Reported by Japong on 2021-02-03
• [1174943] Medium CVE-2021-21179: Use after free in Network Internals. Reported by Anonymous on 2021-02-05
• [1175507] Medium CVE-2021-21180: Use after free in tab search. Reported by Abdulrahman Alqabandi, Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research on 2021-02-07
• [1177875] Medium CVE-2020-27844: Heap buffer overflow in OpenJPEG. Reported by Sean Campbell at Tableau on 2021-02-12
• [1182767] Medium CVE-2021-21181: Side-channel information leakage in autofill. Reported by Xu Lin (University of Illinois at Chicago), Panagiotis Ilia (University of Illinois at Chicago), Jason Polakis (University of Illinois at Chicago) on 2021-02-26
• [1049265] Low CVE-2021-21182: Insufficient policy enforcement in navigations. Reported by Luan Herrera (@lbherrera_) on 2020-02-05
• [1105875] Low CVE-2021-21183: Inappropriate implementation in performance APIs. Reported by Takashi Yoneuchi (@y0n3uchy) on 2020-07-15
• [1131929] Low CVE-2021-21184: Inappropriate implementation in performance APIs. Reported by James Hartig on 2020-09-24
• [1100748] Low CVE-2021-21185: Insufficient policy enforcement in extensions. Reported by David Erceg on 2020-06-30
• [1153445] Low CVE-2021-21186: Insufficient policy enforcement in QR scanning. Reported by dhirajkumarnifty on 2020-11-28
• [1155516] Low CVE-2021-21187: Insufficient data validation in URL formatting. Reported by Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani on 2020-12-04
• [1161739] Low CVE-2021-21188: Use after free in Blink. Reported by Woojin Oh(@pwn_expoit) of STEALIEN on 2020-12-24
• [1165392] Low CVE-2021-21189: Insufficient policy enforcement in payments. Reported by Khalil Zhani on 2021-01-11
• [1166091] Low CVE-2021-21190: Uninitialized Use in PDFium. Reported by Zhou Aiting(@zhouat1) of Qihoo 360 Vulcan Team on 2021-01-13

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