A use‑after‑free flaw was discovered in Aura, the graphics subsystem of Google Chrome. In affected versions, a crafted HTML page that is loaded by a renderer process can trigger the program to reference freed memory. If successfully triggered, the vulnerability can allow the compromised renderer to bypass the sandbox, potentially executing arbitrary code on the host system. The weakness is classified as CWE‑416 and CWE‑825 and is rated as Chromium security severity Critical.

Google Chrome versions prior to 148.0.7778.168 are affected. Users running the stable channel of Chrome older than this release are at risk until they upgrade.

The CVSS base score for the vulnerability is 8.3, indicating high severity due to its sandbox escape potential. No EPSS score is available, and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog. Exploitation requires a remote party to serve a malicious page that can be rendered by a compromised renderer process, making the attack vector remote. Once executed, the sandbox escape permits the attacker to compromise the integrity, confidentiality and availability of the host system.