Advisory Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass the Mark-of-the-Web protection mechanism on affected installations of Google Drive. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file.

The specific flaw exists within the Google Drive desktop application for Windows. When syncing files shared from a untrusted account, the Google Drive desktop application does not apply the Mark-of-the-Web to the local copies of the files. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user.

07/12/24 – ZDI reported the vulnerability to the vendor.

07/12/24 – The vendor acknowledged the report.

07/26/24 – The vendor states the issue might not be severe enough to track as an abuse risk and the case does not meet the threshold for a fix.

07/30/24 – ZDI provided details as to why we disagree with their assessment.

08/19/24 – The vendor states that they reviewed the case again, and that their assessment remains unchanged.

07/31/25 – After careful review the ZDI decided that this case should be disclosed publicly on 08/05/25

-- Mitigation: Given the nature of the vulnerability, the only salient mitigation strategy is to restrict interaction with the product.

• 2024-07-05 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
• 2025-08-05 - Coordinated public release of advisory
• 2025-08-05 - Advisory Updated