CVE-2011-2808
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA stale layout root is set as an input element in WebKit in Google Chrome before Blink M13 when a child of a keygen with autofocus is accessed.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceIn WebKit (Chrome before Blink M13), when accessing a child element of a <keygen> tag with the autofocus attribute, a stale (outdated) layout root pointer is incorrectly assigned as an input element. This creates a use-after-free condition where the renderer attempts to use a freed or invalid layout object, potentially leading to memory corruption and cross-origin information disclosure.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data< m13CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify browser type and rendering engineCheck if the browser is Chrome/Chromium-based. In the browser address bar, type 'chrome://version' (Chrome) or go to 'About' in menu (Chromium) to view the browser name and version number.Affected if The browser is Google Chrome or Chromium using the WebKit rendering engine instead of Blink.
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Determine Chrome/Chromium version numberLook for the version string in chrome://version (Chrome) or About dialog (Chromium). Versions are typically formatted as numbers like 12.0.x, 13.0.x, etc.Affected if The version number is less than 13.0.0.0 (M13). Note: M13 corresponds to version 13.0.x in the stable release channel.
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Verify rendering engine lineage (if version unclear)In the browser, navigate to chrome://chrome or check the user-agent string by visiting a site like whatsmyuseragent.com. Look for 'WebKit' in the user-agent.Affected if The user-agent string contains 'WebKit/' rather than a Blink-only identifier, indicating the browser is using the older WebKit engine.
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Confirm vulnerability trigger condition existsThis vulnerability requires HTML pages containing a <keygen> element with the autofocus attribute. Check if any internal or third-party web applications use this specific element combination.Affected if The environment runs web applications that utilize <keygen> elements with the autofocus attribute, creating the exact condition this CVE exploits.
The environment is affected if the browser is Chrome/Chromium version below 13.0 using the WebKit rendering engine, particularly if web applications contain <keygen> elements with autofocus attributes.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Google Chrome to version M13 or later, which uses the patched Blink rendering engine instead of the vulnerable WebKit code. Ensure all client browsers in the environment are updated.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-2808 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-2808 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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