CVE-2025-0996
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows attackers to spoof the URL bar (Omnibox) in Google Chrome on Android, making malicious websites appear legitimate. Users of Chrome on Android are affected when visiting crafted HTML pages. The spoofing could trick users into believing they're on a trusted site.
💻 Affected Systems
- Google Chrome for Android
📦 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 credentials or financial information on phishing sites that appear to be legitimate banking, email, or corporate portals.
Likely Case
Phishing attacks where users are deceived into visiting malicious sites that appear to be legitimate services, potentially leading to credential theft.
If Mitigated
Users who verify URLs carefully or use additional authentication methods would be less impacted, though the visual deception remains effective.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user interaction (visiting malicious page) but no authentication. The CWE-1007 indicates insufficient UI warning or confirmation.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 133.0.6943.98
Vendor Advisory: https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2025/02/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_12.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Google Play Store 2. Search for Chrome 3. Update to version 133.0.6943.98 or later 4. Restart Chrome after update
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Use Desktop Chrome
allSwitch to desktop version of Chrome which is not affected by this specific vulnerability
Enable Enhanced Safe Browsing
allEnable Chrome's Enhanced Safe Browsing feature for additional protection against malicious sites
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Educate users to manually verify URLs by tapping the address bar to see the full URL
- Implement network filtering to block known malicious domains and phishing sites
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Chrome version in Settings > About Chrome. If version is below 133.0.6943.98, the device is vulnerable.Check Version:
chrome://version/ in Chrome address barVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm Chrome version is 133.0.6943.98 or higher in Settings > About Chrome.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual user reports of suspicious URLs or phishing attempts
- Security awareness training reports of URL spoofing
Network Indicators:
- Traffic to domains with SSL certificates mismatching displayed URLs
- Increased reports of phishing sites from users
SIEM Query:
source="chrome_security_logs" AND (event="url_spoofing_report" OR event="phishing_attempt")