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CVE-2014-9654

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-04-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 55.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
The Regular Expressions package in International Components for Unicode (ICU) for C/C++ before 2014-12-03, as used in Google Chrome before 40.0.2214.91, calculates certain values without ensuring that they can be represented in a 24-bit field, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted string, a related issue to CVE-2014-7923.

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 confidence

The Regular Expressions package in ICU for C/C++ before 2014-12-03 performs calculations without validating that values fit within a 24-bit field, causing integer overflow that leads to memory corruption when processing crafted Unicode strings. This vulnerability was inherited by Google Chrome versions prior to 40.0.2214.91.

MitigationUpdate ICU library to a version released after 2014-12-03, or update affected applications (including Google Chrome) to patched versions that include the corrected ICU library.

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:<= 40.0.2214.85
International Components For UnicodeApplication
Affected:< 55.1

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

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

  1. Check Google Chrome version
    Open Chrome, click the menu icon (three dots), select Help, then About Google Chrome. The version number is displayed on that page.
    Affected if Version is 40.0.2214.85 or earlier (any version up to 40.0.2214.85)
  2. Check ICU library version on Linux
    Run the command 'ldd /path/to/your/application' to find linked ICU libraries, then use 'dpkg -l libicu*' or 'rpm -qa | grep icu' to list installed ICU packages with their versions.
    Affected if Any ICU library version below 55.1 is installed and in use
  3. Check ICU library version on Windows
    Locate the ICU DLL files (icudt*.dll, icu*.dll) in the application directory or system paths, right-click each DLL, select Properties, then look at the Details tab for the product version.
    Affected if ICU DLL versions show numbers below 55.1 (for example, 55.0, 54.1, 54.0, etc.)
  4. Verify if application uses ICU regex processing
    Review application documentation or source code to determine if it uses the ICU library for regular expression operations on Unicode strings. Check for calls to functions like uregex_open, uregex_matches, or similar ICU regex APIs.
    Affected if The application processes Unicode strings through ICU regex functions and those strings could be untrusted or crafted input

Your environment is affected if you are running Google Chrome 40.0.2214.85 or earlier, or any application that links to an ICU library version below 55.1, and that application processes Unicode strings using the regex functionality.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 55.1 or later
Fixed in 55.1
Interim mitigation

Update ICU library to a version released after 2014-12-03, or update affected applications (including Google Chrome) to patched versions that include the corrected ICU library.

Recommended fix High confidence

Chrome: 40.0.2214.91 or later | ICU: 55.1 or later

  1. For Chrome users: Update Chrome to version 40.0.2214.91 or later by going to Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome and clicking 'Update'
  2. For applications using ICU: Upgrade International Components for Unicode (ICU) to version 55.1 or later from https://icu.unicode.org/download/
  3. If using ICU via a package manager (e.g., apt, yum, brew), update the icu package to the latest available version that is >= 55.1
  4. Reboot or restart the affected application to ensure the updated libraries are loaded

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Chrome Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,560
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,096.

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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-2014-9654 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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