Use after free in libavif in Google Chrome prior to 119.0.6045.199 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted avif file. (Chromium security severity: High)

CVE-2023-6351: Stable Channel Update for Desktop

Google has rolled out security updates to fix seven security issues in its Chrome browser, including a zero-day that has come under active exploitation in the wild.
Tracked as CVE-2023-6345, the high-severity vulnerability has been described as an integer overflow bug in Skia, an open source 2D graphics library.
Benoît Sevens and Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) have been

Google has rolled out security updates to fix seven security issues in its Chrome browser, including a zero-day that has come under active exploitation in the wild.

Tracked as **CVE-2023-6345**, the high-severity vulnerability has been described as an integer overflow bug in Skia, an open source 2D graphics library.

Benoît Sevens and Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) have been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on November 24, 2023.

As is typically the case, the search giant acknowledged that "an exploit for CVE-2023-6345 exists in the wild," but stopped short of sharing additional information surrounding the nature of attacks and the threat actors that may be weaponizing it in real-world attacks.

It's worth noting that Google released patches for a similar integer overflow flaw in the same component (CVE-2023-2136) in April 2023 that had also come under active exploitation as a zero-day, raising the possibility that CVE-2023-6345 could be a patch bypass for the former.

CVE-2023-2136 is said to have "allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page."

With the latest update, the tech giant has addressed a total of six zero-days in Chrome since the start of the year -

*   CVE-2023-2033 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Type confusion in V8
*   CVE-2023-2136 (CVSS score: 9.6) - Integer overflow in Skia
*   CVE-2023-3079 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Type confusion in V8
*   CVE-2023-4863 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Heap buffer overflow in WebP
*   CVE-2023-5217 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Heap buffer overflow in vp8 encoding in libvpx

Users are recommended to upgrade to Chrome version 119.0.6045.199/.200 for Windows and 119.0.6045.199 for macOS and Linux to mitigate potential threats. Users of Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi are also advised to apply the fixes as and when they become available.

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Zero-Day Alert: Google Chrome Under Active Attack, Exploiting New Vulnerability

By Deeba Ahmed
Amazon and eBay have been declared the highest data-collecting platforms among all the Android shopping apps researchers examined.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Study Finds Amazon, eBay and Afterpay as Top Android User Data Collectors

As per Atlas VPN’s research, besides Amazon, eBay, and Afterpay, other popular apps were also found to be sharing personal details and financial data with third parties.

To shop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, most users turn to smartphones and tablets to secure the best deals. However, it is essential to be aware of potential risks, such as how various vendors collect your data, to navigate the shopping season safely.

According to the latest research conducted by the Atlas VPN team, numerous leading online shopping platforms collect sensitive user data, with some going as far as sharing this **information with third parties** without the users’ knowledge.

The platforms underwent assessment across various data collection categories, encompassing personal details, financial information, and user geolocation. The evaluated data points included the user’s name, phone number, payment method, and precise location, which were further categorized into extended data types for more in-depth analysis.

In addition, Atlas VPN researchers assessed the Google Play app profiles of the 60 most popular Android apps within the shopping category. The apps were ranked according to the number of user information data points collected.

The researchers chose apps from App Figures’ top Android shopping app charts for 2023 for their analysis. The charts comprised various apps, including shopping, buy now and pay later, and discount offer apps. Researchers have shared their list of the year’s top 15 highest-user data-collecting apps.

According to their **report**, Amazon and eBay have been declared the highest data-collecting platforms among all the Android shopping apps researchers examined. Reportedly, eBay collects 28 user data points, and Amazon collects 25.

The popular buy-now app Afterpay was the third-highest data collecting platform with 22 data points against 7 data types. It was the only identified app that didn’t just collect data but also shared sensitive data such as in-app messages, emails, SMS messages, and credit scores with third parties.

Next were Home Improvement retailer Lowe’s health retail platform iHerb and Vinted, a secondhand products marketplace. Each collected 21 data points. Chinese e-comm website Alibaba and home goods giant Home Depot collected 20 data points across 9 data types. Poshmark, another secondhand goods retailer, collected significant user data with 19 data points in 7 categories.

The rest of the apps included Nike, Wayfair, OfferUp, Craigslist, ASOS, and H&M apps, each collecting 18 data points. Among the 60 apps examined by Atlas VPN, Kohl’s app didn’t collect any data. A staggering 75% of the apps share user data with third parties. For instance, 52% and 38% of apps shared app activity, app info, and performance data, typically used to enhance user experience. 

Moreover, 58% of the apps shared personal data like names, home addresses, email IDs, and phone numbers with third parties. A whopping 25% of these apps shared device IDs or other unique identifiers for smartphones and tablets.

Around one-third, or 37%, of the apps disclosed financial data, including purchase history and payment details, whereas 28% shared location data with external sources. The extent of data sharing among Android shopping apps is alarming and a threat to user privacy.

Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN, Vilius Kardelis, shared his thoughts on shopping app data collection with Hackread.com, stating that:

“In today’s digital age, your personal information is being extensively collected by apps and shared with countless firms. This holiday season, approach all apps aware your data is being collected. Take the time to carefully read privacy policies, be mindful of the permissions you grant, and prioritize safe shopping practices to safeguard your personal information.”

****Surprised? Don’t be!****

Smartphone apps are designed to collect user data, and the extent and duration of this collection are subjects of debate. Contrarily, data collection and sharing constitute a lucrative business for technology giants.

**In 2021,** researchers claimed that Android sends more data to Google than iOS does to Apple. The research suggested that Android devices collect and transmit twice as much data to Google compared to iOS to Apple. However, Google refuted these findings.

In August of last year, researchers compiled a list of the 10 Android Educational Apps that collect the most user data. The list, **available here**, includes some of the most prominent and widely used Android apps globally.

****Conclusion:****

There isn’t much one can do to prevent apps from collecting data. However, if you are an Android user, consider downloading apps only after reviewing the section on the Play Store that details the data the app collects.

1.  **Fake GitHub Repos Delivering Malware as PoCs**
2.  **Google kicks out 600 malicious apps from Play Store**
3.  **Apple removed all major VPN apps from Chinese App Store**
4.  **Google removes ClearURLs Chrome extension from its store**
5.  **Google Fails To Remove “App Developer” Behind Malware Scam**

Study Finds Amazon, eBay and Afterpay as Top Android User Data Collectors

What you look for online is up to you—just make sure no one else is taking a peek.

When it comes to looking something up on the web, most of us default to “googling” it—Google's search engine has become so dominant that it's now a verb, in the same way that Photoshop is. But using Google for your searches comes with a privacy trade-off.

Google's business is, of course, based on advertising, and every search you make feeds into the profile of you that it uses to target the ads you see around the web. While Google isn't telling marketing firms what searches you're running, it is using those queries to build up a picture of you that ads can be sold against. As such, Google can be a real snoop about collecting all your data and using it to personalize your ads and the search results you get.

There are ways to increase your privacy on Google’s platforms, like using privacy-focused browsers, using privacy-focused alternatives to Google Maps, auto-deleting your web history after a certain time period, or simply limiting the amount of data the company collects in the first place, by opting out of features like web-based email and location awareness. (And you should know that using your browser's incognito mode isn’t as sneaky as you think it is.) If you're serious about getting off the data collection grid, there’s a bevy of other privacy-focused search options at your disposal. So if you want to use a search engine that doesn't keep track of your queries, serve your data to advertisers, or change your search results based on what it thinks you’ll like, you’ve got some options.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is simple, secure, and private.

DuckDuckGo via David Nield

The granddaddy of Google alternatives, DuckDuckGo has made private search its raison d'être for more than 15 years. The service is a little harder to recommend these days, after a kerfuffle in 2022 where the company was caught in an apparent partnership with Microsoft that allowed the tech behemoth’s tracking scripts to run unimpeded on the DuckDuckGo browser. After outcry from privacy advocates, DuckDuckGo walked back that stance a few months later, and it now says it does indeed block Microsoft’s trackers.

If you can move past that particular ugly duckling, the service is still far more private than Google. DuckDuckGo says it collates information in search results from over 400 sources. It doesn’t draw from Google, but it does pull from places like Bing and Wikipedia. What it doesn’t do is personalize search results based on data it collects from users. Like Google, DuckDuckGo displays ads, but they’re not tailored to what it thinks you’ll like based on your search history.

DuckDuckGo can be installed into just about any browser via a browser extension. It also has a full browser available on desktop for Mac and Windows. There are also mobile apps on both iOS and Android that work as browsers while incorporating DuckDuckGo’s search engine.

On the browser and app alike, the service automatically tracks and blocks all the data-scraping efforts from the websites you visit. Press the shield button in the browser bar to see what sites have tried to collect your data or track your travels across the web. Another feature blocks trackers and data requests in other apps on your phone. DuckDuckGo says it can’t block certain scripts and trackers on the websites that run them (like Facebook, for example), but tapping that little button quickly lets you know what’s being blocked and what’s not.

Brave Search

Brave isn't going to keep track of what you're looking for.

Brave via David Nield

The privacy-focused browser extension provider Brave has its own dedicated search engine. The company launched the service in 2021. Like the other services on this list, Brave says its Search product doesn’t track your searches or log your data. It's impressively comprehensive—as much for its security and privacy as for the results you get.

Simply put, no logs of your queries are kept by the search engine. While that might make for a slightly less convenient user experience—Google might automatically know you're more interested in the Miami Dolphins than actual dolphins, for instance—it does mean that you can search without worrying that you're going to see any related advertising.

"It's impossible for us to share, sell, or lose your data, because we don’t collect it in the first place," says Brave. While the service might eventually become ad-supported, those adverts won't know anything about you or what you've been looking for on the web, making it distinctly different from Google's offering.

Brave also has a service in beta called Goggles that lets users customize their own page rankings to make search results more relevant to each person. It can have some issues, such as being a bit complicated and also could lead to people creating their own little filter bubbles—inadvertently or otherwise.

You can download the Brave Browser for desktop, or get its mobile apps on Android and iOS. You can also access the Brave search engine from any web browser and any device. You don't have to use the Brave browser to use it.

Kagi

The prospect of paying for a search engine might seem odd if you’re used to unlimited Googling on a whim. But that’s exactly the service Kagi is offering.

If you’re willing to pay for yet another subscription, Kagi is a premium search experience worth trying. You can customize how search results are displayed and how links are organized and accessed. There’s also a robust array of search operators and keyboard shortcuts to use. Kagi’s privacy policy is similar to the other services on this list, in that it doesn’t track your online movements or collect your data. It also doesn’t show ads, which feels like such a relief in the era of endless pop ups and sponsored posts.

The pricing plan is simple. There is a free tier, which allots you 100 searches per month before cutting you off. From there you can pay $5 per month for 500 searches, or get unlimited searches $10 a month. All plans, even the free ones, require you to make an account.

Kagi is available as a browser extension for Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. Kagi’s Orion browser is available on the Mac, and it also has an iOS app.

Startpage

Want Google’s search results but without Google? Startpage may be the answer. The company serves up Google’s search results without you being tracked. “Startpage submits your query to Google anonymously, then returns Google results to you privately,” the company says on its website. It adds that Google “never sees you and does not know who made the request”.

Startpage, which was founded in the Netherlands in 2006, says that it doesn’t store people’s personal data or search history, and your IP address is removed by its servers. The company also says it blocks price trackers and prevents advertisers from showing you ads based on your online history. (It does show ads from Google’s search results). Its search results also let you click to open an anonymous view of them, which it claims works like a VPN.

The experience isn’t exactly the same as Google search, but the results are. For instance, if you search for something in the news—maybe Elon Musk, if you must—Google will show you a carousel of the latest news stories before its search results. Google also includes Musk’s latest tweets, videos of him, and photos. When you’re using Startpage, the clutter is removed and you just get URLs.

Mojeek

Mojeek doesn’t use search results from other search engines. Instead, the British search engine, which launched in 2006, is building its own index of the web. It’s doing this in the same way as Google and Bing. The company’s crawlers, which trawl the web and collect information about pages, have indexed more than six billion web pages.

This crawling isn’t as extensive as Google’s—back in 2013 Google said it was indexing 30 trillion web pages, 100 billion times a month—but Mojeek says its approach means it is fully in control of the search results it shows. The company argues there should be alternative indexes to those controlled by Big Tech. “Making and altering our own algorithm from scratch to display high quality and unbiased results is essential,” the company said in 2018.

But that’s not the only difference to Google. Mojeek also says it doesn’t track people. The search results you see are based entirely on the words that you type in, the company says, and it doesn’t collect IP addresses, search history or the clicks that you make.

Limiting Google

You can break the connection between Google Chrome and your Google account.

Google via David Nield

It's worth bearing in mind that if you're using Google Chrome and you're signed into Google, you may well be syncing your DuckDuckGo or Brave searches back to your Google account. Your Google web history and your Chrome browsing history (if you're signed into Google) will match up most of the time, because Google keeps them in sync by default, partly to make it easier to use Google across multiple devices.

To stop this from happening in Chrome, click the three dots in the top right-hand corner, then choose **Settings**. If you see that you're signed into your Google account at the very top, click **Turn off**—this will break the connection between Google and your browser, and you'll be given the option to delete all the data that's stored locally on your device (including your browsing history, bookmarks, and stored passwords).

Perhaps an easier option is to simply switch to another browser altogether—as we've already mentioned, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Kagi all have them. Other good cross-platform alternatives to Chrome are Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari from Apple—but whichever one you switch to, be sure to check out the settings for deleting your browsing history as you go. (All of these browsers have simple-to-use options for this.)

Whichever browser you decide to use, opening up a private or incognito window while you're searching will prevent those searches from being logged inside the browser—as soon as you close the window, the search is gone forever. Bear in mind that these modes don't necessarily stop online companies from tracking your queries though. (If you sign into your Google account while in private mode, Google will still be able to track you.)

If you can't bring yourself to be parted from the search results that Google serves up, you can at least make sure that they're not remembered for too long. Open up your Google account settings page on the web, then click **Data & Privacy** and scroll down to **Web & App Activity.** You can choose either **Manage activity** to remove history and searches manually, or select the **Auto-delete** option to have this data wiped automatically once it's been stored for a certain amount of time.

Private and Secure Web Search Engines: DuckDuckGo, Brave, Kagi, Startpage

Plus: North Korean supply chain attacks, a Russian USB worm spreads internationally, and more.

Trillions of domestic phone records in the United States are tracked every year under a secretive surveillance operation, WIRED revealed this week. The Data Analytical Services program, which was previously known as Hemisphere, allows cops to request and analyze the phone records of people and others who they communicate with, including those not suspected of crimes. The surveillance system is run by the White House, with telecom firm AT&T providing phone records in response to law enforcement requests.

The crypto world kept tumbling this week. After Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty at the start of this month, it was the turn of crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao to face scrutiny from US officials. The US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against the company, which accuses it of violating US anti-money-laundering laws and of enabling Iran, Cuba, and Russia to launder dirty money.

If you’re in the US and have some extra time over the long holiday weekend, it’s also worth catching up on Andy Greenberg’s epic tale of the three young hackers twho brought down the internet with the Mirai botnet—and their story of redemption. Then it’s definitely time to log off.

That’s not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy stories we didn’t report on in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories, and stay safe out there.

Google makes most of its money from advertising—and it doesn’t like ad blockers, which prevent millions of ads being shown on websites every day. In recent months, the company has been cracking down on ad blockers on YouTube in a big way. But that’s just the start of it.

This week YouTube confirmed it has, in some instances, introduced a five-second delay before videos load if people are using an ad blocker in their browser. “In the past week, users using ad blockers may have experienced suboptimal viewing, which included delays in loading, regardless of the browser they are using,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge. The company admitted the delays had been happening after some people on Reddit and Hacker News spotted slow loading times and initially thought it was because of the browser they were using.

The move follows Google announcing last week that it is going ahead with plans to change how Chrome browser extensions operate, which may limit how some popular ad blockers work. Last year the company paused its plans to roll out Manifest V3, the platform that browser extensions work on, after complaints about how it would impact some extensions. As Ars Technica reported, Google is planning on rolling out a revised version of Manifest V3 in June next year. Google says Manifest V3 is designed to make Chrome run smoothly by reducing the resources that extensions can use and improve security. However ad blockers and privacy experts have criticized how the system works and, in particular, changes to the Declarative Net Request API.

Google proposed putting restrictions on this API but has relaxed these somewhat in the new version of Manifest V3. It originally planned to allow browser extensions to make 5,000 content-filtering “rules,” but it has now increased this to 30,000 rules. AdGuard, an ad blocker, has tentatively welcomed some of the revised changes. Elsewhere, uBlock Origin, which uses around 300,000 filtering rules, has created a “lite” version of its extension in response to Manifest V3. The developer behind uBlock Origin says the lite version is not as “capable” as the full version. Meanwhile, browser makers Brave and Firefox say they are introducing work-arounds to stop ad blockers from being impacted by the changes.

Supply chain attacks, where malware is implanted in a company's legitimate software and spread to the firm's customers, can be incredibly hard to detect and can cause billions of dollars in damage if they’re successful. Hackers for North Korea are increasingly adopting the sophisticated attack method.

This week Microsoft revealed it has discovered the hermit kingdom’s hackers implanting malicious code inside an installer file for photo and video editing software CyberLink. The installer file used legitimate code from CyberLink and was hosted on the company's servers, obscuring the malicious file it contained. Once installed, Microsoft said, the malicious file would deploy a second payload. More than 100 devices have been impacted by the attack, Microsoft says, and it has attributed the attack to the North Korea-based Diamond Sleet hacking group.

After details of the attack were revealed, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and the Republic of Korea’s National Intelligence Service issued a warning saying that North Korea’s supply chain attacks are “growing in sophistication and volume.” The two bodies say the tactics support North Korea’s wider priorities, such as stealing money to help fund its ailing economy and nuclear programs, espionage, and stealing tech secrets.

Some flights have had to change course or lost satellite signals in midair due to electronic warfare, _The New York Times_ reported this week. The ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have seen GPS jamming and spoofing technologies interfere with the daily operation of flights in and around the areas. The incidents, so far, have not been dangerous. But they highlight the increase in electronic warfare capabilities—which seek to interrupt or disrupt the technologies used for communications and infrastructure—and how the technology needed to launch them is getting cheaper. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, electronic warfare tactics have become increasingly common on both sides, as drones being used for surveillance and reconnaissance have had their signals interrupted and rockets have been sent off course.

Gamaredon is one of Russia’s most brazen hacking groups—the hackers have consistently attacked Ukrainian systems. Now one piece of its malware, a worm that spreads via USB stick and is dubbed LitterDrifter, has spread internationally. The worm has been spotted in the US, Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, and Vietnam, according to researchers at security firm Check Point. The company’s researchers say the worm includes two elements: a spreading module and a second module that also communicates with Gamaredon’s servers. “It’s clear that LitterDrifter was designed to support a large-scale collection operation,” the Check Point researchers write, adding that it’s likely the worm has “spread beyond its intended targets.”

Google’s Ad Blocker Crackdown Is Growing

The title of this article probably sounds like the caption to a meme. Instead, this is an actual problem GitGuardian's engineers had to solve in implementing the mechanisms for their new HasMySecretLeaked service. They wanted to help developers find out if their secrets (passwords, API keys, private keys, cryptographic certificates, etc.) had found their way into public GitHub repositories. How

Developer Tools / API Security

The title of this article probably sounds like the caption to a meme. Instead, this is an actual problem GitGuardian's engineers had to solve in implementing the mechanisms for their new HasMySecretLeaked service. They wanted to help developers find out if their secrets (passwords, API keys, private keys, cryptographic certificates, etc.) had found their way into public GitHub repositories. How could they comb a vast library of secrets found in publicly available GitHub repositories and their histories and compare them to your secrets without you having to expose sensitive information? This article will tell you how.

First, if we were to set a bit's mass as equal to that of one electron, a ton of data would be around 121.9 quadrillion petabytes of data at standard Earth gravity or $39.2 billion billion billion US dollars in MacBook Pro storage upgrades (more than all the money in the world). So when this article claims GitGuardian scanned a "ton" of GitHub public commit data, that's figurative, not literal.

But yes, they scanned a "ton" of public commits and gists from GitHub, traversing commit histories, and found _millions_ of secrets: passwords, API keys, private keys, cryptographic certificates, and more. And no, "millions" is not figurative. They literally found over 10 million in 2022.

How could GitGuardian make it possible for developers and their employers to see if their current and valid secrets were among that 10+ million without simply publishing millions of secrets, making it easier for threat actors to find and harvest them, and letting a lot of genies out of a lot of bottles? One word: fingerprinting.

After some careful evaluation and testing, they developed a secret-fingerprinting protocol that encrypts and hashes the secret, and then just a partial hash is shared with GitGuardian. With this they could limit the number of potential matches to a manageable number without knowing enough of the hash to reverse and decrypt it. To further ensure security, they put the toolkit for encrypting and hashing the secret on the client-side.

If you're using the HasMySecretLeaked web interface, you can copy a Python script to create the hash locally and just put the output in the browser. You never have to put the secret itself anywhere it can be transmitted by the browser and you can easily review the 21 lines of code to prove to yourself that it's not sending anything outside the terminal session you opened to run the script. If that's not enough, open the F12 developer tools in Chrome or another browser and go to the "Network" panel to monitor what information the web interface is sending upstream.

If you're using the open source ggshield CLI you can inspect the CLI's code to see what is happening when you use the hmsl command. Want even more assurance? Use a traffic inspector like Fiddler or Wireshark to view what's being transmitted.

GitGuardian's engineers knew that even customers who trusted them would be apprehensive about pasting an API key or some other secret into a box on a web page. For both security and the peace of mind of everyone who uses the service, they chose to be as transparent as possible and put as much of the process under customer control as possible. This goes beyond their marketing materials and into the ggshield documentation for the hsml command.

GitGuardian went the extra mile to make sure that people using their HasMySecretLeaked checker don't have to share the actual secrets to see if they leaked. And it's paid off. Over 9,000 secrets were checked in the first few weeks it was live.

If your secrets have already been publicly divulged, it's better to know than not. They may not have been exploited yet, but it's likely just a matter of time. You can check up to five per day for free via the HasMySecretLeaked checker via the web, and even more using the GitGuardian shield CLI. And even if you're not looking to see if your secrets leaked, you should look at their code and methods to help inspire your efforts to make it easier for your customers to share sensitive information without sharing the information itself.

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Tell Me Your Secrets Without Telling Me Your Secrets

Google has set a date for the introduction of Manifest V3 which will hurt the capabilities of many ad blockers.

Google has announced it will shut down Manifest V2 in June 2024 and move on to Manifest V3, the latest version of its Chrome extension specification that has faced criticism for putting limits on ad blockers. Roughly said, Manifest V2 and V3 are the rules that browser extension developers have to follow if they want their extensions to get accepted into the Google Play Store.

Manifest V2 is the old model. The Chrome Web Store no longer accepts Manifest V2 extensions, but browsers can still use them. For now. Manifest V3 is supported generally in Chrome 88 or later and will be the standard after the transition planned to take place in June 2024.

A popular type of browser extensions are ad blockers. Almost all these ad blockers work with block lists, which are long lists of domains, subdomains, and IP addresses that they filter out of your web traffic. These lists are commonly referred to as rulesets. One part of the transition will “improve” content filtering. And to be fair, Google has made some compromises when it comes to the version as it’s now in the planning, compared to what it originally planned to do.

*   Originally, each extension could offer users a choice of 50 static rulesets, and 10 of these rulesets could be enabled simultaneously. This changes to 50 extensions simultaneously and 100 in total.
*   Extensions could add up to 5,000 rules dynamically which encouraged using this functionality sparingly and made it easier for Google to detect abuse. Extensions can add rules dynamically to support more frequent updates and user-defined rules. But it comes with the risks of phishing or data theft because these “updates” are not checked during the Chrome Web Store review. For example, a redirect rule could be abused to inject affiliate links without consent. But Google has decided that block and allow are not that easily abused so it will allow up to 30,000 rules to be added dynamically.

However, this is still far from enough to fully reach the potential of the best ad blockers we have now. And it’s not just the hard limits on filtering rulesets, there are a lot of other new limits on filtering. Items can’t be filtered based on the response headers or according to the URL in the address bar. Also, extension developers are limited in what regular expressions they can use, along with other technical limitations.

Even if this is not targeted at ad blockers specifically, it’s still a major change that makes blocking requests less flexible. But the bottom line result is that it limits the API that many ad blockers use, and replace it with a less capable one.

Google’s will tell you that by limiting extensions, the browser can be lighter on resources, and Google can protect your privacy from extension developers and calls it “a step in the direction of privacy, security, and performance.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) however calls Manifest V3 deceitful and threatening.

> “Manifest V3 is another example of the inherent conflict of interest that comes from Google controlling both the dominant web browser and one of the largest internet advertising networks.”

Under the new specifications, browser extensions that monitor and filter the web traffic between the browser and the website will have greatly reduced capabilities. This includes ad blockers and privacy-protective tracker blockers. No real surprise, considering Google has trackers installed on 75% of the top one million websites.

According to Firefox’s Add-on Operations Manager, most malicious extension that manage to get through the security review process, are usually interested in simply observing the conversation between your browser and whatever websites you visit. The malicious activity happens elsewhere, after the data has already been read. So in their mind, what would really help security is a more thorough review process, but that’s not something Google says it has plans for.

After looking at the arguments Google used to justify this transition, ArsTechnica came to the conclusion that there’s no justification for arbitrarily limiting the list of filter rules. It says once Manifest V3 happens, Chrome users will be limited to light ad blocker functionality while users will need to switch to Firefox or some other non-limited browser to get the full extension.

Nevertheless, Firefox said it will adopt Manifest V3 in the interest of cross-browser compatibility. And Chrome’s market share will certainly have influenced that decision as well.

Google Chrome Enterprise users with the “ExtensionManifestV2Availability” policy turned on will get an extra year of Manifest V2 compatibility.

If you want to help Malwarebytes get ready for the transition, you can test the beta version of Browser Guard for Manifest V3.

**We don’t just report on privacy—we offer you the option to use it.**

Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using Malwarebytes Privacy VPN.

**Black Friday sale**

Save 50% on our Home bundles for a limited time only!

 Chrome pushes forward with plans to limit ad blockers in the future 

Libde265 v1.0.12 was discovered to contain multiple buffer overflows via the num_tile_columns and num_tile_row parameters in the function pic_parameter_set::dump.

**Summary**

There is a segmentation fault caused by a buffer over-read on pic\_parameter\_set::dump due to an incorrect value of num\_tile\_columns or num\_tile\_rows.

**Tested with:**

*   Commit: 6fc550f (master)
*   PoC: poc
*   cmd: ./dec265 -d poc

**Crash output:**

    INFO: ----------------- SPS -----------------
    INFO: video_parameter_set_id  : 0
    INFO: sps_max_sub_layers      : 1
    INFO: sps_temporal_id_nesting_flag : 1
    INFO:   general_profile_space     : 0
    INFO:   general_tier_flag         : 0
    INFO:   general_profile_idc       : Main
    INFO:   general_profile_compatibility_flags: 0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
    INFO:     general_progressive_source_flag : 0
    INFO:     general_interlaced_source_flag : 0
    INFO:     general_non_packed_constraint_flag : 0
    INFO:     general_frame_only_constraint_flag : 0
    INFO:   general_level_idc         : 60 (2.00)
    INFO: seq_parameter_set_id    : 0
    INFO: chroma_format_idc       : 1 (4:2:0)
    INFO: pic_width_in_luma_samples  : 416
    INFO: pic_height_in_luma_samples : 240
    INFO: conformance_window_flag    : 1
    INFO: conf_win_left_offset  : 0
    INFO: conf_win_right_offset : 0
    INFO: conf_win_top_offset   : 0
    INFO: conf_win_bottom_offset: 0
    INFO: bit_depth_luma   : 10
    INFO: bit_depth_chroma : 9
    INFO: log2_max_pic_order_cnt_lsb : 4
    INFO: sps_sub_layer_ordering_info_present_flag : 1
    INFO: Layer 0
    INFO:   sps_max_dec_pic_buffering      : 5
    INFO:   sps_max_num_reorder_pics       : 3
    INFO:   sps_max_latency_increase_plus1 : 0
    INFO: log2_min_luma_coding_block_size : 3
    INFO: log2_diff_max_min_luma_coding_block_size : 1
    INFO: log2_min_transform_block_size   : 2
    INFO: log2_diff_max_min_transform_block_size : 2
    INFO: max_transform_hierarchy_depth_inter : 0
    INFO: max_transform_hierarchy_depth_intra : 0
    INFO: scaling_list_enable_flag : 0
    INFO: amp_enabled_flag                    : 1
    INFO: sample_adaptive_offset_enabled_flag : 1
    INFO: pcm_enabled_flag                    : 0
    INFO: num_short_term_ref_pic_sets : 11
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  0 ]: X...X.X.X.......|................
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  1 ]: ..........X.X...|...X............
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  2 ]: ............X.X.|.X...X..........
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  3 ]: ...............X|X.X...X.........
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  4 ]: .............X.X|X...X...........
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  5 ]: ..........X.X.X.|.X..............
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  6 ]: ...........X...X|X.X.............
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  7 ]: .............X..|X.X.X...........
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  8 ]: ........X.......|................
    INFO: ref_pic_set[  9 ]: ............X...|...X............
    INFO: ref_pic_set[ 10 ]: ..............X.|.X...X..........
    INFO: long_term_ref_pics_present_flag : 0
    INFO: sps_temporal_mvp_enabled_flag      : 1
    INFO: strong_intra_smoothing_enable_flag : 1
    INFO: vui_parameters_present_flag        : 1
    INFO: sps_extension_present_flag    : 0
    INFO: sps_range_extension_flag      : 0
    INFO: sps_multilayer_extension_flag : 0
    INFO: sps_extension_6bits           : 0
    INFO: CtbSizeY     : 16
    INFO: MinCbSizeY   : 8
    INFO: MaxCbSizeY   : 16
    INFO: MinTBSizeY   : 4
    INFO: MaxTBSizeY   : 16
    INFO: PicWidthInCtbsY         : 26
    INFO: PicHeightInCtbsY        : 15
    INFO: SubWidthC               : 2
    INFO: SubHeightC              : 2
    INFO: ----------------- VUI -----------------
    INFO: sample aspect ratio        : 0:0
    INFO: overscan_info_present_flag : 0
    INFO: overscan_appropriate_flag  : 0
    INFO: video_signal_type_present_flag: 0
    INFO: chroma_loc_info_present_flag: 0
    INFO: neutral_chroma_indication_flag: 0
    INFO: field_seq_flag                : 0
    INFO: frame_field_info_present_flag : 0
    INFO: default_display_window_flag   : 1
    INFO:   def_disp_win_left_offset    : 0
    INFO:   def_disp_win_right_offset   : 0
    INFO:   def_disp_win_top_offset     : 0
    INFO:   def_disp_win_bottom_offset  : 0
    INFO: vui_timing_info_present_flag  : 0
    INFO: vui_poc_proportional_to_timing_flag : 0
    INFO: vui_num_ticks_poc_diff_one          : 1
    INFO: vui_hrd_parameters_present_flag : 0
    INFO: bitstream_restriction_flag         : 0
    INFO: ----------------- PPS -----------------
    INFO: pic_parameter_set_id       : 0
    INFO: seq_parameter_set_id       : 0
    INFO: dependent_slice_segments_enabled_flag : 1
    INFO: sign_data_hiding_flag      : 1
    INFO: cabac_init_present_flag    : 0
    INFO: num_ref_idx_l0_default_active : -84
    INFO: num_ref_idx_l1_default_active : 12
    INFO: pic_init_qp                : 25
    INFO: constrained_intra_pred_flag: 0
    INFO: transform_skip_enabled_flag: 1
    INFO: cu_qp_delta_enabled_flag   : 0
    INFO: pic_cb_qp_offset             : 1
    INFO: pic_cr_qp_offset             : 0
    INFO: pps_slice_chroma_qp_offsets_present_flag : 0
    INFO: weighted_pred_flag           : 0
    INFO: weighted_bipred_flag         : 1
    INFO: output_flag_present_flag     : 0
    INFO: transquant_bypass_enable_flag: 0
    INFO: tiles_enabled_flag           : 1
    INFO: entropy_coding_sync_enabled_flag: 0
    INFO: num_tile_columns    : 18815
    INFO: num_tile_rows       : 1
    INFO: uniform_spacing_flag: 1
    INFO: tile column boundaries: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3985 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [1]    4017733 segmentation fault  ./dec265 -d poc
    

**Analysis**

While executing decoder_context::read_pps_NAL, parameters are read in

bool success = new\_pps->read(&reader,this);

Inside the function, there is a check when setting num_tile_columns in case it goes over DE265_MAX_TILE_COLUMNS, which is 10.

  if (tiles\_enabled\_flag) {
    num\_tile\_columns = get\_uvlc(br);
    if (num\_tile\_columns == UVLC\_ERROR ||
	num\_tile\_columns+1 > DE265\_MAX\_TILE\_COLUMNS) {
      ctx->add\_warning(DE265\_WARNING\_PPS\_HEADER\_INVALID, false);
      return false;
    }

After exiting due to reading more than DE265_MAX_TILE_COLUMNS, the headers are dumped by calling dump:

  bool success = new\_pps->read(&reader,this);

  if (param\_pps\_headers\_fd>=0) {
    new\_pps->dump(param\_pps\_headers\_fd);
  }

  if (success) {
    pps\[ (int)new\_pps->pic\_parameter\_set\_id \] = new\_pps;
  }

In dump, the following code is executed to dump the tile column boundaries:

    LOG0("tile column boundaries: ");
    for (int i=0;i<=num\_tile\_columns;i++) {
      LOG1("\*%d ",colBd\[i\]);
    }
    LOG0("\*\\n");

As previously shown, num_tile_columns while be set to a higher number than DE265_MAX_TILE_COLUMNS. colBd is defined as:

int colBd    [ DE265_MAX_TILE_COLUMNS+1 ];

Therefore, that loop will go over colBd and will print all the data pointed by the values found after the limits of colBd in memory until the end of the loop or the next memory address is invalid.

**Impact**

*   Information leak from memory
*   Crash

If using a carefully crafted exploit, the impact could be an information leak without a crash.

**Patch**

In order to prevent this, the success value should be checked before printing the information:

diff --git a/libde265/decctx.cc b/libde265/decctx.cc
index 223a6aaf..1b79adec 100644
\--- a/libde265/decctx.cc
+++ b/libde265/decctx.cc
@@ -583,11 +583,10 @@ de265\_error decoder\_context::read\_pps\_NAL(bitreader& reader)
 
   bool success = new\_pps->read(&reader,this);
 
\-  if (param\_pps\_headers\_fd>=0) {
\-    new\_pps->dump(param\_pps\_headers\_fd);
\-  }
\-
   if (success) {
+    if (param\_pps\_headers\_fd>=0) {
+      new\_pps->dump(param\_pps\_headers\_fd);
+    }
     pps\[ (int)new\_pps->pic\_parameter\_set\_id \] = new\_pps;
   }

Another possibility could be to perform length checks inside the dump function to handle the case:

diff --git a/libde265/pps.cc b/libde265/pps.cc
index de3bcda1..a5abd9b3 100644
\--- a/libde265/pps.cc
+++ b/libde265/pps.cc
@@ -903,14 +903,22 @@ void pic\_parameter\_set::dump(int fd) const
     LOG1("uniform\_spacing\_flag: %d\\n", uniform\_spacing\_flag);
 
     LOG0("tile column boundaries: ");
\-    for (int i=0;i<=num\_tile\_columns;i++) {
\-      LOG1("\*%d ",colBd\[i\]);
+    if (num\_tile\_columns+1 > DE265\_MAX\_TILE\_COLUMNS) {
+      LOG0("Number of tile columns is invalid");
+    } else {
+      for (int i=0;i<=num\_tile\_columns;i++) {
+        LOG1("\*%d ",colBd\[i\]);
+      }
     }
     LOG0("\*\\n");
 
     LOG0("tile row boundaries: ");
\-    for (int i=0;i<=num\_tile\_rows;i++) {
\-      LOG1("\*%d ",rowBd\[i\]);
+    if (num\_tile\_rows+1 > DE265\_MAX\_TILE\_ROWS) {
+      LOG0("Number of tile rows is invalid");
+    } else {
+      for (int i=0;i<=num\_tile\_rows;i++) {
+        LOG1("\*%d ",rowBd\[i\]);
+      }
     }
     LOG0("\*\\n");

**Other notes**

The same issue occurs with num_tile_rows.

CVE-2023-43887: Buffer over-read causes segmentation fault in pic_parameter_set::dump · Issue #418 · strukturag/libde265

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