ChromeWeb browser · Google

CVE-2016-5140

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-08-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 52.0.2743.82 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
Heap-based buffer overflow in the opj_j2k_read_SQcd_SQcc function in j2k.c in OpenJPEG, as used in PDFium in Google Chrome before 52.0.2743.116, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via crafted JPEG 2000 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 confidence

Heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the opj_j2k_read_SQcd_SQcc function in OpenJPEG (j2k.c), as used by PDFium in Google Chrome, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via specially crafted JPEG 2000 image files.

MitigationUpdate Google Chrome to version 52.0.2743.116 or later; applications using OpenJPEG directly should update to a patched version of the OpenJPEG 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:<= 52.0.2743.82

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 installed Google Chrome version
    Navigate to chrome://settings/help or run 'google-chrome --version' in terminal to view the exact Chrome release version
    Affected if Version number is 52.0.2743.82 or lower (any version up to and including 52.0.2743.82)
  2. Verify Chrome is used to render PDF documents
    Confirm that Google Chrome is used as a PDF viewer or that PDF rendering is enabled in the browser settings
    Affected if Chrome PDF viewer (PDFium) is enabled and Chrome processes PDF files containing JPEG 2000 images
  3. Identify JPEG 2000 image processing vector
    Determine if PDF files with embedded JPEG 2000 images are opened in Chrome's built-in PDF viewer or any application using PDFium
    Affected if A specially crafted JPEG 2000 image embedded in a PDF can be processed by the vulnerable OpenJPEG code path in PDFium

You are affected if your Google Chrome version is 52.0.2743.82 or lower and you open or process PDF documents containing JPEG 2000 images using Chrome's built-in PDF viewer.

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 a release after 52.0.2743.82
Interim mitigation

Update Google Chrome to version 52.0.2743.116 or later; applications using OpenJPEG directly should update to a patched version of the OpenJPEG library.

Recommended fix High confidence

Chrome 52.0.2743.116 or later (preferably latest stable release)

  1. Check the current Google Chrome version by navigating to chrome://settings/help
  2. If the version is 52.0.2743.82 or earlier, navigate to the Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome
  3. Click 'Update Google Chrome' to download and install the latest version
  4. Restart the browser after the update completes
  5. Verify the version is now 52.0.2743.116 or later
Caveat Chrome auto-updates typically have no breaking changes; however, some legacy extension compatibility may be affected in major version jumps

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 / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-5140 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-5140 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