CVE-2020-16017 Google Chrome Use-After-Free

What is CVE-2020-16017?

CVE-2020-16017 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Google Chrome, published on 8 Jan 2021. 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

Use after free in site isolation in Google Chrome prior to 86.0.4240.198 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page.

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-16017?

8 open source packages ship an affected version, including CefSharp.Common, CefSharp.WinForms and CefSharp.Wpf. It affects 1 product.

Products include Google Chrome.

How do I fix CVE-2020-16017?

Upgrade CefSharp.Common to 86.0.241 or later. US federal agencies must fix it by 3 May 2022.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2020-16017 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2020-16017 in the wild since at least 3 Nov 2021.

Other vulnerabilities in Google Chrome

• CVE-2022-4135 Google Chromium GPU Heap Buffer Overflow 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
• CVE-2026-11645 Google Chromium V8 Out-of-Bounds Read and Write Exploited High 8.8

All Google Chrome vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2020-16017, GHSA-gvqv-779r-4jgp, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-16017.