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CVE-2012-2862

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-08-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 21.0.1180.74 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Use-after-free vulnerability in the PDF functionality in Google Chrome before 21.0.1180.75 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted document.

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 confidence

Use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome's PDF rendering functionality before version 21.0.1180.75. The flaw is triggered when processing a specially crafted PDF document, leading to memory corruption that can be exploited for denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpdate Google Chrome to version 21.0.1180.75 or later. Organizations should deploy the update through their patch management systems and verify complete coverage across all endpoints.

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
Affected:<= 21.0.1180.74= 21.0.1180.0= 21.0.1180.1= 21.0.1180.2= 21.0.1180.31= 21.0.1180.32= 21.0.1180.33= 21.0.1180.34= 21.0.1180.35= 21.0.1180.36= 21.0.1180.37= 21.0.1180.38

CVSS 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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:M/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed Chrome version
    Open Google Chrome, click the menu button (three dots), select Help > About Google Chrome, or run 'google-chrome --version' or 'chrome --version' from command line
    Affected if version is 21.0.1180.74 or lower, or matches any of these exact versions: 21.0.1180.0 through 21.0.1180.38
  2. Confirm PDF rendering functionality is in use
    The vulnerability is in Chrome's built-in PDF viewer. Verify the PDF viewer is active by opening any PDF in Chrome or checking that Chrome's internal PDF component (pdf.dll on Windows, PDF.framework on Mac, libpdf.so on Linux) is present in the Chrome installation directory
    Affected if PDF rendering is enabled (this is the default state for Chrome installations)
  3. Identify Chrome installation directory
    Windows: C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\; macOS: /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/; Linux: /opt/google/chrome/ or /usr/bin/google-chrome
    Affected if Chrome is installed and the vulnerable PDF rendering component exists in the application directory

You are affected if Google Chrome version is 21.0.1180.74 or any version from 21.0.1180.0 through 21.0.1180.38, and the built-in PDF viewer is enabled (default state).

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 21.0.1180.74
Interim mitigation

Update Google Chrome to version 21.0.1180.75 or later. Organizations should deploy the update through their patch management systems and verify complete coverage across all endpoints.

Fix this in Chrome Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,540
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,064.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-2862 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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