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CriticalCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Use-after-free in Google Chrome Portals sandbox escape

IdentifiersCVE-2021-37973CWE-416· Use After Free

CVE-2021-37973 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Portals component of Google Chrome affecting versions prior to 94.0.4606.61. According to the provided content, the flaw can be triggered via a crafted HTML page and was exploitable by a remote attacker who had already compromised the renderer process. The bug is not described as a generic browser-sandbox flaw; rather, it is a memory-safety issue in Portals that could be used as part of a Chrome exploit chain to escape the sandbox.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation could allow an attacker who already achieved code execution or compromise within the Chrome renderer process to break out of the renderer sandbox. In practical terms, this elevates an attacker from a constrained renderer context to a more privileged context outside the browser sandbox, enabling follow-on compromise of the host or use in multi-stage spyware delivery chains.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate patching is not possible, reduce exposure by limiting use of untrusted web content, isolating high-risk browsing activity, and enforcing rapid browser update policies. Because exploitation requires prior renderer compromise, layered mitigations that reduce initial renderer exploitation risk—such as disabling unnecessary web features where operationally feasible, using site isolation and exploit mitigations provided by the platform/browser, and restricting access to attacker-controlled pages—may reduce likelihood of successful chaining, but patching is the primary mitigation.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Update Google Chrome to version 94.0.4606.61 or later, as the vulnerability affects Chrome prior to 94.0.4606.61. Apply vendor-provided patches across all Chromium-based deployments where applicable and prioritize patching on exposed end-user systems, especially Android-targeted environments referenced in the supplied reporting.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
DebianDebian Linuxoperating_system
Fedora ProjectFedoraoperating_system
GoogleChromeapplication

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What this page doesn’t show

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Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence

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Associated malware2

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures2

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Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity

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