CVE-2018-16081 Security feature bypass in Chrome

What is CVE-2018-16081?

CVE-2018-16081 is a high-severity vulnerability in Google Chrome, published on 9 Jan 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

Allowing the chrome.debugger API to run on file:// URLs in DevTools in Google Chrome prior to 69.0.3497.81 allowed an attacker who convinced a user to install a malicious extension to access files on the local file system without file access permission via a crafted Chrome Extension.

Weakness: CWE-862

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-16081?

It affects 4 products.

Products include Google Chrome, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation.

How do I fix CVE-2018-16081?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Is CVE-2018-16081 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-16081 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Google Chrome

• CVE-2022-4135 Google Chromium GPU Heap Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.6
• CVE-2020-16017 Google Chrome Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.6
• CVE-2020-16010 Google Chrome for Android UI Heap Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.6
• CVE-2026-87491 Google Chromium V8 Out of Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2026-85046 Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion Exploited High 8.8

All Google Chrome vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-h5rc-j9f7-wmr8, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16081.