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ChromeWeb browser · Google

CVE-2016-5216

MEDIUM · 6.3 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-01-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 54.0.2840.99 or later.
See remediation →
70/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
A use after free in PDFium in Google Chrome prior to 55.0.2883.75 for Mac, Windows and Linux, and 55.0.2883.84 for Android allowed a remote attacker to perform an out of bounds memory read via a crafted PDF file.

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

A use-after-free vulnerability in PDFium (Google Chrome's PDF rendering engine) allows a remote attacker to perform out-of-bounds memory reads by tricking a user into opening a specially crafted malicious PDF file. The vulnerability stems from the PDFium library accessing freed memory after it has been deallocated.

MitigationUpdate Google Chrome to version 55.0.2883.75 or later (55.0.2883.84 for Android) to patch the vulnerable PDFium component. Users should avoid opening untrusted PDF files until the update is applied.

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:<= 54.0.2840.99

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

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
    Open Google Chrome, click the three-dot menu (top right), select 'Help', then 'About Google Chrome'. The version number is displayed on this page.
    Affected if The displayed version is 54.0.2840.99 or earlier (any version <= 54.0.2840.99)
  2. Confirm version via chrome://version
    In the Chrome address bar, type chrome://version and press Enter. Locate the 'Version' field in the displayed information.
    Affected if The version listed is 54.0.2840.99 or lower
  3. Verify PDF viewer is accessible
    PDFium is Chrome's built-in PDF rendering engine and is automatically available when opening PDF files. No separate configuration check is needed - this component loads whenever a PDF is opened in Chrome.
    Affected if PDF files can be opened in Chrome (the built-in PDF viewer is active by default)

You are affected if your Google Chrome version is 54.0.2840.99 or earlier and you open untrusted PDF files in the browser.

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 54.0.2840.99
Interim mitigation

Update Google Chrome to version 55.0.2883.75 or later (55.0.2883.84 for Android) to patch the vulnerable PDFium component. Users should avoid opening untrusted PDF files until the update is applied.

Fix this in Chrome Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,270
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2016-5216 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