ChromeWeb browser · Google
CVE-2011-3966
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 · uneditedUse-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome before 17.0.963.46 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via vectors related to error handling for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) token-sequence data.
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 · high confidenceA use-after-free vulnerability exists in Google Chrome versions prior to 17.0.963.46 in the CSS parser's error-handling code for token-sequence data. When the browser processes malformed CSS input, it incorrectly frees memory and then attempts to access that freed memory region, leading to potential denial of service or arbitrary code execution.
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
ChromeWeb browser
< 17.0.963.46
SafariWeb browser
< 6.0< 10.7< 6.0CVSS 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
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
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 installed browser or applicationDetermine whether Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Apple iTunes, or Apple iOS is installed on the system. For Chrome, open chrome://settings/help to view the version. For Safari, go to Safari > About Safari. For iTunes, open iTunes > About iTunes. For iOS, go to Settings > General > About.Affected if Any of these affected products are installed on the endpoint
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Check Google Chrome versionOpen chrome://settings/help or run 'google-chrome --version' from command line. Compare the installed version number to 17.0.963.46.Affected if Chrome version is less than 17.0.963.46
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Check Apple Safari versionOpen Safari > About Safari. Compare the displayed version to 6.0.Affected if Safari version is less than 6.0
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Check Apple iTunes versionOpen iTunes > About iTunes. Compare the displayed version to 10.7.Affected if iTunes version is less than 10.7
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Check Apple iOS versionOn the iOS device, go to Settings > General > About and note the version number. Compare to 6.0.Affected if iOS version is less than 6.0
You are affected if any Google Chrome version < 17.0.963.46, Safari < 6.0, iTunes < 10.7, or iOS < 6.0 is installed on your system, as all these products use the vulnerable CSS parser that processes web content.
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 data6.010.717.0.963.46
Upgrade Google Chrome to version 17.0.963.46 or later to receive the patched binary. Organizations should verify browser versions across managed endpoints and deploy the update through standard patch management processes.
Fix this in Chrome
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-3966 — 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-2011-3966 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data