Use After Free Bugs Are Out of Control @Endingwithali #threatwire #cybersecurity

Hak5
Hak5Apr 16, 2026

Why It Matters

These zero‑day use‑after‑free bugs expose millions of users to remote code execution, compelling browsers to prioritize memory‑safety and prompting organizations to reassess their security posture.

Key Takeaways

  • Chrome and Chromium hit by zero‑day use‑after‑free in WebGPU
  • Firefox sandbox escape via use‑after‑free in accessibility API
  • CVE‑20265281 and CVE‑202264688 both scored near maximum severity
  • Researchers note rising frequency of use‑after‑free bugs in browsers
  • Engineers urged to tighten code reviews for memory‑management errors

Summary

The video highlights two critical use‑after‑free vulnerabilities discovered in the world’s leading browsers. Chrome and its open‑source counterpart Chromium are affected by CVE‑20265281, a zero‑day flaw in Dawn, the WebGPU implementation, while Firefox suffers from CVE‑202264688, a sandbox‑escape bug in the disability‑access API that earned a perfect CVSS score of 10.

Both flaws allow attackers to execute arbitrary code from a malicious HTML page, compromising the renderer process in Chrome and breaking the sandbox isolation in Firefox. NIST’s analysis confirms the severity, and the vulnerabilities underscore a broader trend: use‑after‑free bugs are becoming more prevalent in the wild, especially in complex, memory‑intensive components like graphics pipelines and accessibility layers.

The presenter notes an “increase in the use after free vulnerabilities in the wild” and calls on developers to share mitigation strategies. He asks which programming languages are most susceptible and what reviewers should flag, emphasizing the need for collective education on memory‑safety practices.

For enterprises and end‑users, these bugs translate into immediate risk of remote code execution and data breach. The incidents pressure browser vendors to accelerate hardening efforts, adopt safer languages or tooling, and reinforce code‑review processes to curb future memory‑management errors.

Original Description

Hak5 -- Cyber Security Education, Inspiration, News & Community since 2005:
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