High

Heap Buffer Overflow in PDFium in Google Chrome

IdentifiersCVE-2026-4455CWE-122· Heap-based Buffer Overflow

CVE-2026-4455 is a high-severity heap buffer overflow vulnerability in PDFium, the PDF rendering component used by Google Chrome. According to the provided content, affected versions are Google Chrome prior to 146.0.7680.153. The flaw can be triggered by a crafted PDF file, leading to heap corruption during PDF processing/rendering. While the specific vulnerable function is not provided in the available material, the issue is explicitly characterized as a heap buffer overflow in PDFium and therefore involves improper bounds handling on heap-allocated memory while parsing or rendering attacker-controlled PDF content.

For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.

Start free trial

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 a remote attacker to trigger heap corruption in the browser process by getting a target to open or render a malicious PDF file in Chrome. As indicated in the supporting content for this Chrome release, memory corruption vulnerabilities of this class may result in arbitrary code execution, denial of service via browser crash, or potentially information disclosure, depending on exploitability and runtime conditions.

Mitigation

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

Apply the vendor update on all affected Chrome installations as soon as possible. Until patching is complete, reduce exposure to untrusted PDF content, especially PDFs delivered via web pages, downloads, email links, or other attacker-controlled channels. Where operationally feasible, restrict or disable automatic opening/rendering of PDFs in the browser and use layered controls such as sandboxing, application isolation, and content filtering to reduce exploitation risk.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade Google Chrome to version 146.0.7680.153 or later. The provided content states that Chrome versions prior to 146.0.7680.153 are affected, and Google released patched Stable channel builds 146.0.7680.153/154 for Windows and macOS and 146.0.7680.153 for Linux as part of the security update addressing this issue.

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

GoogleChromeapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

8 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.

8 SOURCESView more in app

cyber security newsNews

Mar 21, 2026

Chrome Security Update Patches 26 Vulnerabilities that Enable Attackers to Execute Malicious Code Remotely

A high-severity heap buffer overflow vulnerability in Chrome's PDFium component.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.

Start free trial

Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

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

Social activity5

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.

EXTERNAL REFERENCES

MITRE CVE

cve.org · CVE-2026-4455

NVD

nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-4455

MITRE CWE · CWE-122

Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Vendor Advisory

chromereleases.googleblog.com/2026/03/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_18.html

Issue Tracking

issues.chromium.org/issues/488585504