IRONSMITHINTEL
CRITICALCVSS8.8
|
Actively Exploited
|CISA KEV|CVE-2023-4863|Auth: none|Reboot: not required|Est. 10 minutes|Manual only

Google Chrome < 116.0.5845.188 — RCE

Simply viewing a malicious WebP image in Chrome can give an attacker complete control of your server.

Published May 3, 2026 · Updated May 10, 2026
Why patchRisk explained in plain English
Worst-case scenarioIf unpatched

An attacker who can get you to visit a malicious web page — or who has compromised a website you trust — can serve a malicious WebP image that triggers this overflow. No clicks required beyond navigation to the page. Once triggered, the attacker can run any code they choose on your server as the user running Chrome.

How the attack worksNo clicks needed

Google Chrome uses the libwebp library to process WebP-format images. WebP is a modern image format used widely on the web — any Chrome browser loading a page with WebP images uses this library. Versions prior to 116.0.5845.188 contain a heap buffer overflow in this library that can be triggered by a malicious image.

📧

Phishing link

🖼

Malicious file

🔓

Server compromised

Am I affected?Quick check

Probably yes if any of these apply:

Any server with Chrome installed
Jump hosts
RDS servers where users browse
Running Chrome < 116.0.5845.188

Affected OS versions

Windows Server 2016Windows Server 2019Windows Server 2022
Fixed in116.0.5845.188
Real-world incidentsWhat we've seen

A security researcher browsing an internal web application from a server session opens a page that an attacker has injected with a malicious WebP image. Within seconds, the attacker has shell access to the server under the browser's user context. This vulnerability was weaponised by commercial spyware vendors before Google patched it.

How to patch

Manual remediation steps

10 minutes

Check Current Version

(Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\BLBeacon').version

Update Chrome

Option 1 — Chrome Menu

1
Open Chrome
2
Click the three-dot menu (top right)
3
Click Help → About Google Chrome
4
Chrome will check for updates and install automatically
5
Click Relaunch when prompted

Option 2 — Manual Download

1
Download Chrome Enterprise installer from: https://chromeenterprise.google/intl/en_us/browser/download/
2
Run the installer
3
Relaunch Chrome

Verification

(Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\BLBeacon').version
# Must show 116.0.5845.188 or later
PowerShell automationComing soon

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