A recent vulnerability, assigned with the identifier CVE-2023-1225, has been discovered affecting Google Chrome on iOS devices running versions prior to 111..5563.64. This vulnerability is categorized as a "Medium" severity issue by Chromium Security, which may allow a remote attacker to bypass the same origin policy and potentially execute unauthorized actions on the victim's browser by using a specially crafted HTML page. In this post, we will discuss the exploit details, as well as provide a code snippet showcasing an example of the vulnerability and links to original references for additional information.

Exploit Details

The vulnerability lies in the insufficient policy enforcement within the navigation implementation of Google Chrome's iOS web browser. The same-origin policy is an important security measure that restricts web pages from interacting with data or functionality from different origins, thereby reducing the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and other related threats.

However, due to the improper enforcement of this security policy, a crafted HTML page containing malicious JavaScript code could potentially violate the same-origin policy constraints and steal sensitive data or perform unauthorized actions on the user's browser. To demonstrate this vulnerability, let's take a look at the following hypothetical code snippet:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>CVE-2023-1225 Demonstration</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <iframe src="https://example.com"; id="targetIframe"></iframe>
    <script>
      window.onload = function () {
        var frame = document.getElementById("targetIframe");
        frame.contentWindow.location.replace("javascript:alert('Same-Origin Policy Bypassed!');");
      };
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

This code snippet demonstrates a simple HTML page containing an embedded iframe element that loads data from "https://example.com". The JavaScript code within the page modifies the iframe's location by executing a replace() function call, which uses a javascript: URL as an argument. Depending on the vulnerable Chrome version on iOS, this code could potentially bypass the same-origin policy and cause an alert box to be displayed containing the message "Same-Origin Policy Bypassed!".

For further information regarding this vulnerability, you can visit the following links to the original references:

1. Chromium Security Details - Insufficient Policy Enforcement in Navigation
2. Google Chrome Release Blog (111..5563.64)

Conclusion

The discovery of this vulnerability (CVE-2023-1225) is a reminder of the importance of regularly updating software, especially web browsers, to mitigate emerging security risks. Users who are still using older versions of Google Chrome on iOS devices should update their browser to version 111..5563.64 or later to protect against this medium-severity security issue. By doing so, they can ensure that their browsing experience remains secure and less susceptible to potential attacks or unauthorized data access due to insufficient policy enforcement in navigation.

Timeline

Published on: 03/07/2023 22:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 03/11/2023 02:38:00 UTC