CVE-2026-5281 — Google Dawn Use-After-Free Vulnerability
Overview
Google Dawn contains an use-after-free vulnerability that could allow a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to execute arbitrary code via a crafted HTML page. This vulnerability could affect multiple Chromium-based products including, but not limited to, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera.
Vulnerability details
- CVE ID
- CVE-2026-5281
- Vulnerability
- Google Dawn Use-After-Free Vulnerability
- Vendor
- Affected products
- Google: Dawn
- Severity
- HIGH
- Exploitation status
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV)
- EPSS score
- 5.5% probability of exploitation in 30 days · 92th percentile
- Published
- 2026-04-01
Remediation guidance
CVE-2026-5281 is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog — U.S. federal civilian agencies are required to remediate it under Binding Operational Directive 22-01. Treat it as a priority for every environment.
Apply the vendor's official security update for Google the affected product as soon as possible. Where a patch is unavailable, apply vendor mitigations or isolate/segment exposed systems.
FIRST EPSS estimates a 5.5% probability that CVE-2026-5281 will be exploited within the next 30 days (92th percentile of all CVEs) — useful for risk-based patch sequencing.
Hunt for indicators of compromise tied to this vulnerability and confirm logging/EDR coverage on affected assets.
Authoritative references
Remediate CVE-2026-5281 — and stay ahead of the next one
CVE-2026-5281 is listed in the CISA KEV catalog as actively exploited — treat remediation as urgent. Scan your domain free to see whether CVE-2026-5281 and other Google issues affect you and get a prioritized remediation report (full report from ₹999) — or stream the full feed of 1,600+ actively-exploited CVEs straight into your SOC.
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