CVE-2023-7011
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Google Chrome's Picture-in-Picture implementation allows attackers to spoof the URL bar (Omnibox) content via a malicious HTML page. Users who visit such pages could be tricked into believing they're on a legitimate site when they're actually viewing attacker-controlled content. All Chrome users on versions before 119.0.6045.105 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Google Chrome
- Chromium-based browsers
📦 What is this software?
Chrome by Google
Google Chrome is the world's most popular web browser, used by over 3 billion users globally across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms. As a Chromium-based browser developed by Google, Chrome dominates the browser market with approximately 65% market share, making it a critical compon...
Learn more about Chrome →⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Users could be tricked into entering sensitive information (passwords, credit cards) into what appears to be a legitimate site but is actually a phishing page, leading to credential theft and financial fraud.
Likely Case
Attackers create convincing phishing pages that appear to be legitimate websites, increasing the success rate of credential harvesting attacks against users who don't verify URLs carefully.
If Mitigated
With proper user awareness training and browser security features, users would notice the discrepancy between the actual URL and spoofed content, reducing successful attacks.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user interaction (visiting a malicious page) but no authentication. The technique is relatively simple for attackers to implement.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 119.0.6045.105
Vendor Advisory: https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2023/10/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_31.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Chrome. 2. Click the three-dot menu. 3. Go to Help > About Google Chrome. 4. Chrome will automatically check for and install updates. 5. Click 'Relaunch' when prompted.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Picture-in-Picture
allTemporarily disable Picture-in-Picture feature via Chrome flags
chrome://flags/#enable-picture-in-picture
Set to Disabled
Use alternative browser
allSwitch to a non-Chromium browser until Chrome is updated
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web filtering to block known malicious sites and suspicious domains
- Enable enhanced phishing protection in Chrome settings and educate users to always verify URLs before entering credentials
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Chrome version: If version is less than 119.0.6045.105, system is vulnerableCheck Version:
chrome://version/ or 'google-chrome --version' (Linux) or check About Google Chrome in menuVerify Fix Applied:
Verify Chrome version is 119.0.6045.105 or higher📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual Picture-in-Picture API usage in browser logs
- Multiple failed authentication attempts from users reporting legitimate-looking login pages
Network Indicators:
- Traffic to domains with SSL certificates mismatching displayed content
- Increased traffic to newly registered domains with Chrome-specific user agents
SIEM Query:
source="chrome_logs" AND (event="picture_in_picture" OR url_spoofing_indicators)