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ChromeWeb browser · Google

CVE-2019-13738

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 79.0.3945.79 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
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
Insufficient policy enforcement in navigation in Google Chrome prior to 79.0.3945.79 allowed a remote attacker to bypass site isolation via a crafted HTML page.

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

Insufficient policy enforcement in navigation in Google Chrome allowed a remote attacker to bypass site isolation via a crafted HTML page. Site isolation is a security mechanism that separates pages from different origins into separate processes to prevent cross-origin data access. This vulnerability could allow an attacker to potentially access sensitive data from one origin while visiting a malicious page.

MitigationUpdate Google Chrome to version 79.0.3945.79 or later. Organizations should deploy browser updates through their patch management systems and ensure automatic updates are enabled for end-users.

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:< 79.0.3945.79
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 30= 31
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux For Scientific ComputingOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 6.0

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
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

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. Identify installed Chrome version
    Open Chrome, click the three-dot menu > Help > About Google Chrome. The version number will be displayed on this page.
    Affected if The displayed version is lower than 79.0.3945.79
  2. Check Chrome version via command line (Windows)
    Open Command Prompt and run: chrome --version or go to chrome://version to see the full version details.
    Affected if Version reported is less than 79.0.3945.79
  3. Check Chrome version on Linux
    Run: google-chrome --version or dpkg -l | grep google-chrome (Debian/Ubuntu) or rpm -qa | grep google-chrome (RHEL/Fedora)
    Affected if Version is lower than 79.0.3945.79
  4. Verify site isolation status
    Navigate to chrome://flags/#enable-site-per-process in Chrome. This flag controls site isolation. Check if it is set to Enabled, Disabled, or Default.
    Affected if Site isolation is enabled (any setting other than Disabled) - the vulnerability allows bypassing an enabled site isolation policy
  5. Check Linux distribution version (Debian)
    Run: cat /etc/debian_version
    Affected if Running Debian 9.0 or 10.0 with an affected Chrome version below 79.0.3945.79
  6. Check Linux distribution version (Fedora)
    Run: cat /etc/fedora-release
    Affected if Running Fedora 30 or 31 with an affected Chrome version below 79.0.3945.79

You are affected if you are running Google Chrome version below 79.0.3945.79 with site isolation enabled, particularly on the listed Linux distributions.

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 79.0.3945.79 or later
Fixed in 79.0.3945.79
Interim mitigation

Update Google Chrome to version 79.0.3945.79 or later. Organizations should deploy browser updates through their patch management systems and ensure automatic updates are enabled for end-users.

Fix this in Chrome Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

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-2019-13738 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