Bypass Record

Exploitation for Priv-Esc × Google Chrome

A publicly-reported instance of Exploitation for Priv-Esc bypassing Google Chrome, recorded with its original source. Factual record; no assessment of any specific deployment.

Product
Google Chrome
Technique
Exploitation for Priv-Esc
MITRE ATT&CK
T1068
Confidence
High
Severity
High
Status
in the wild
Disclosed
2025-02-02
Config / version noted
Not stated

Provenance

Reported as

Multiple infostealer families have bypassed Chrome's App-Bound Encryption

Mechanism

Malware spawns Chrome with the --remote-debugging-port flag (default 9222) and uses the debugging API to dump all cookies, bypassing App-Bound Encryption on Windows, Keychain on macOS, and secret storage on Linux.

Detection & mitigation

Monitor for Chrome processes spawned with the --remote-debugging-port flag, especially from non-interactive or suspicious parent processes. Use endpoint detection to alert on command-line arguments containing '--remote-debugging-port' and network connections to localhost on port 9222 from unexpected processes. Mitigate by restricting Chrome's remote debugging via Group Policy or disabling it unless explicitly needed.

Exploitation for Priv-Esc has also been recorded against

This is a record of a publicly-reported event, not an assessment of any specific organization's deployment. Detection and mitigation notes are drawn from the cited source. Where the source is silent, fields are omitted.