Chrome Vulnerabilities Allow Code Execution, Browser Crashes
Google has released a Chrome security update addressing two high-severity vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause browser crashes.
The issues affect core browser components and may be triggered when users visit specially crafted websites.
One of the vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-1861, allows “… a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page,” NIST said in its reporting.
Breaking down the Chrome vulnerabilities
The Chrome update addresses two high-severity vulnerabilities stemming from memory corruption in widely used browser components.
While the flaws differ in how they are triggered, each could be exploited through malicious web content and poses a meaningful risk to unpatched systems. The more serious issue, CVE-2026-1862, is a type confusion vulnerability in Chrome’s V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine.
Type confusion occurs when the engine incorrectly interprets the type of an object stored in memory — for example, treating a numeric value as a pointer. This misinterpretation can allow attackers to manipulate memory references, leading to out-of-bounds reads or writes.
In practical terms, successful exploitation could enable arbitrary code execution within Chrome’s sandboxed renderer process.
Although the sandbox limits direct access to the underlying operating system, vulnerabilities of this type are frequently used in exploit chains that achieve broader compromise.
The second vulnerability, CVE-2026-1861, affects libvpx, the library Chrome uses to decode VP8 and VP9 video formats. This issue is a heap buffer overflow, which occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it can safely handle.
An attacker could exploit the flaw by embedding a specially crafted video stream into a webpage. When Chrome attempts to process the malformed media, the overflow can corrupt adjacent memory on the heap. This typically results in a browser crash and denial-of-service condition, but in some cases may be combined with additional vulnerabilities to achieve code execution.
Google has not indicated whether either vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild.
Steps to reduce browser-based attack risk
Patching remains the primary mitigation, but additional controls can help reduce exposure to browser-based threats. The measures below focus on improving detection, limiting exploit paths, and minimizing impact if exploitation occurs.
- Update Chrome across all managed endpoints and prioritize rapid patching for users with access to sensitive systems.
- Strengthen browser hardening by enforcing Chrome sandboxing, site isolation, and restricting unnecessary features through enterprise policies.
- Monitor for signs of exploitation by tracking browser crashes, abnormal process behavior, and suspicious network activity originating from browser sessions.
- Limit the impact of successful exploits by enforcing least-privilege user access and restricting local administrative rights.
- Enhance endpoint and network defenses by configuring EDR tools, exploit mitigations, and web or DNS filtering to block malicious content.
- Improve patch management and asset visibility to ensure critical browser updates are deployed consistently and without delay.
- Regularly test incident response plans that include browser-based exploitation scenarios.
Collectively, these steps help limit the blast radius of browser-based exploits and build organizational resilience. These vulnerabilities reinforce the role of browser security in enterprise risk management.
While timely patching remains essential, combining updates with consistent hardening, monitoring, and response practices can help limit the impact of exploitation.
This article was originally published on our sister site, eSecurityPlanet.
About Author
