Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users

Google has issued its fourth urgent upgrade warning in two months.  In this warning, Google has asked its over two billion users worldwide to upgrade to the latest version of the Chrome browser, if not already downloaded. Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google and was first released in 2008. Google Chrome has dominated the web browser market for some time now.

Google issues this announcement through an official blog post. In the blog post, Google revealed seven ‘High’ rated security threats have been discovered in Chrome with the vulnerabilities impacting Chrome users on all major operating systems like Windows, MacOS, and Linux. A large number of users across various operating systems that Google Chrome boasts of has raised the attention of hackers and makes it a prime target.

Google is currently giving little away about the detected flaws. This is standard practice as the company attempts to limit information to stop the spread of these vulnerabilities to hackers and buy time for users to protect themselves. Consequently, this is all Chrome users have to go on right now:

• High — CVE-2021-30598: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Manfred Paul
• High — CVE-2021-30599: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Manfred Paul
• High — CVE-2021-30600: Use after free in Printing. Reported by 360 Alpha Lab
• High — CVE-2021-30601: Use after free in Extensions API. Reported by 360 Alpha Lab
• High — CVE-2021-30602: Use after free in WebRTC. Reported by Cisco Talos
• High — CVE-2021-30603: Race in WebAudio. Reported by Google Project Zero
• High — CVE-2021-30604: Use after free in ANGLE. Reported by SecunologyLab

What I can tell you is “Type Confusion in V8” is the open-source JavaScript engine at the heart of Chrome. “WebRTC” (Web real-time communications) is tech that enables you to transfer audio and video streaming data between browsers and mobile applications. “ANGLE” (Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine) is Google’s open-source, cross-platform graphics engine abstraction layer. Printing and Extensions are self-explanatory. 

Historically, all of these have been used by hackers to execute code to take control of a target’s computer. Chrome’s most recent zero-day hack (where hackers are known to be exploiting a vulnerability before Google is able to patch it) was a V8 flaw. 

In other to combat these new threats, all Chrome users are expected to navigate to Settings > Help > About Google Chrome. If your browser version on Linux, macOS, and Windows is listed as 92.0.4515.159 or above, you are safe. If not, the About screen should prompt you to update and restart your browser. You should do this immediately so as to upgrade to the latest version of the Chrome browser.

It is to Google’s credit that fixes for high-level attacks are typically released within days of their discovery but their effectiveness still relies upon billions of users updating and restarting their browsers. 

Chrome is a superb browser, but attacks continue to grow and there have already been eight zero-day Chrome hacks this year. It is now vital to keep Chrome up-to-date at all times in other to stay out of the jaws of hackers. If you have doubts that your Chrome browser is up to date, you may ned to check to be double sure. What are you waiting for, Go now!