CVE-2025-13638
Published: 02 December 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-13638 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Google Chrome. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 28.0th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Mandates timely identification, reporting, and correction of flaws like this use-after-free vulnerability in Chrome's Media Stream component.
Implements memory protection mechanisms such as ASLR and DEP that directly mitigate heap corruption from use-after-free exploits.
Requires vulnerability scanning to identify systems running vulnerable Chrome versions affected by this CVE.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome exploited via crafted HTML page for heap corruption and potential RCE directly enables Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203).
NVD Description
Use after free in Media Stream in Google Chrome prior to 143.0.7499.41 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Low)
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-13638 is a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) in the Media Stream component of Google Chrome prior to version 143.0.7499.41. Published on 2025-12-02, it allows a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. Chromium rates its security severity as Low, though the CVSS v3.1 base score is 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
A remote attacker without privileges can exploit this over the network with low attack complexity, but it requires user interaction, such as convincing the user to load a malicious HTML page. Successful exploitation could lead to heap corruption, enabling high-impact compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Mitigation is available via the Google Chrome stable channel update for desktop to version 143.0.7499.41 or later, as announced in the Chrome Releases blog post and detailed in the associated Chromium issue tracker.
Details
- CWE(s)