Patchfirst
CVE-2023-5217 KEVPublic exploit High · 8.8 EPSS 49.0%

Google Chromium libvpx Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Google · Chromium libvpx

Summary

The flaw is a heap buffer overflow in the VP8 encoding code of libvpx, the VP8/VP9 video codec library bundled with Google Chrome. An attacker who can get a victim to load a crafted HTML page can potentially corrupt heap memory, with no authentication or additional configuration required beyond the victim's browser user interaction.

Official description · NVD

Heap buffer overflow in vp8 encoding in libvpx in Google Chrome prior to 117.0.5938.132 and libvpx 1.13.1 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: High)

Breakdown
68.9 / 100
Exploited
Yes, in CISA KEV
Reports
0
Tactics
2/15

How an attack unfolds

Based on mappings. Select a step to see the evidence.
  1. How attackers get in

  2. What they do

First seen exploited 3 days before it was disclosed. Public exploit code (PoC-in-GitHub) appeared 8 days after disclosure.

  1. First seen exploitedVulnCheck KEV evidence3 days before
  2. Disclosedday 0
  3. Added to CISA KEVEU database agrees+4 days
  4. Public exploit codePoC-in-GitHub+8 days

CISA KEV listing is when exploitation was confirmed, not necessarily the first attack.

See the family tree

7 fixes in electron over 24 months. The latest fix listed for electron is 38.0.0-beta.6.

Fixes in electronnpm package, by fixed version. Earlier and later fixes in the same package, not necessarily the same bug.

  1. 26.0.0-beta.13CVE-2023-399566 Sep 2023
  2. 27.0.0-alpha.7CVE-2023-444021 Dec 2023
  3. 27.0.0-beta.2CVE-2023-486312 Sep 2023KEV
  4. 27.0.0-beta.8CVE-2023-521728 Sep 2023KEV
  5. 30.0.3CVE-2024-469931 Jul 2025
  6. 31.0.0-beta.1CVE-2024-469921 Jul 2025
  7. 38.0.0-beta.6CVE-2025-553054 Sep 2025Latest listed

techniques

2 , grouped by in kill-chain order 2

ExecutionTA0002

Malicious Link T1204.001
MITRE CTID mapping of the KEV entry · how it is exploited

This vulnerability was exploited by a remote attacker using a crafted HTML page to trigger a heap buffer overflow in the vp8 encoding of libvpx, leading to heap corruption. This flaw was part of a spyware campaign. The exploitation allowed for program crashes or arbitrary code execution, ultimately resulting in the installation of spyware.

Hijack Execution Flow T1574 also Stealth
MITRE CTID mapping of the KEV entry · primary impact

Detection

0 rules for this CVE · 12 general rules for its techniques

Rules for this CVE

0 that reference CVE-2023-5217 directly.

CVE-specific rules are not available in this build. Search SigmaHQ ↗

Sigma rules © SigmaHQ, Detection Rule License 1.1; linked, not reproduced.

Am I affected? What do I upgrade to?

From GitHub Security Advisories and OSV

1 package in 1 ecosystem. Main package: electron.

Upgrade to 26.2.4

Fixes this CVE and 1 other known vulnerability in this package (CVE-2023-4863).

Also affected, despite being newer: 27.0.0-alpha.1 up to 27.0.0-beta.8.

npmnpm install electron@26.2.4

The first fix for CVE-2023-5217.

Affected versions, by release line

If you runUpgrade to
27.0.0-alpha.1 up to 27.0.0-beta.827.0.0-beta.8
26.0.0 up to 26.2.426.2.4
25.0.0 up to 25.8.425.8.4
24.0.0 up to 24.8.524.8.5
All versions before 22.3.2522.3.25

“Up to” means the second version is the fix and is not affected.

Check your lockfile against all CVEs

What security researchers reported

Not named in any threat report yet

Also mentioned in 50 community threat pulses (AlienVault OTX)

Weaker evidence

Pulses are indicator collections that anyone can publish. A mention is not confirmation of exploitation.

References

52 links, grouped by NVD tag (53 duplicates merged)

Not Applicable 1

pastebin.com/TdkC4pDv
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