Google Chrome has well over two billion users worldwide and it not only dominates the web browser market, its Chromium core runs numerous browser alternatives. All of which makes Chrome the number one target for hackers and now Google has issued its fifth urgent upgrade warning in two months.
In a new blog post, Google has revealed five new ‘High’ rated security threats have been discovered in Chrome and the vulnerabilities impact Chrome users on all major operating systems: Windows, macOS and Linux.
As is standard practice, Google is giving little away about the flaws. This strategy is to limit the spread of these vulnerabilities to hackers and buy time for users to protect themselves. As a result, this is all Chrome users have to go on right now:
- High — CVE-2021-30606: Use after free in Blink. Reported by Nan Wang
- High — CVE-2021-30607: Use after free in Permissions. Reported by Weipeng Jiang
- High — CVE-2021-30608: Use after free in Web Share. Reported by Viettel Cyber Security
- High — CVE-2021-30609: Use after free in Sign-In. Reported by raven
- High — CVE-2021-30610: Use after free in Extensions API. Reported by Vivaldi
Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerabilities that relate to the incorrect use of dynamic memory during program operation. If the program doesn’t clear the pointer to memory after it is freed, hackers can use this error to exploit the program. A further four high rated UAF flaws were found in Chrome last month. Chrome has also had eight ‘zero day’ hacks (vulnerabilities known to hackers before they are fixed) so far this year.
To protect yourself from these new threats, all Chrome users should go to Settings > Help > About Google Chrome. If your browser version on Linux, macOS and Windows is listed as 93.0.4577.63 or above you are safe. If not, the About screen should prompt you to update and restart your browser. You should do this immediately.
Google deserves a lot of credit for the speed with which it continues to deliver fixes to attacks on Chrome, but this is only half the solution. The other half relies on 2.65 billion Chrome users updating and restarting their browsers.
Attacks on Chrome continue to grow as its market position strengthens and it has never been more essential to keep your browser up-to-date at all times. Go check it right now.