Google To Release Chrome Emergency Update To Patch ‘High Severity’ Flaws

Google has updated its Chrome browser for every major operating system and platform. The search giant has included patches and bug fixes for 10 security vulnerabilities in the popular browser. It is recommended to grab and install the update as soon as it becomes available. Let's look at what security risks Google has patched and whether these flaws can impact other web browsers as well.

Google Patches Serious Security Vulnerabilities

Included in the release notes is partial information about the security vulnerabilities which Google has patched. The company claims to have patched ten security vulnerabilities and "high severity" bugs.

Technical jargon aside, some of the security flaws could allow an attacker to corrupt system memory. Security vulnerabilities, tagged as CVE-2022-3885 and CVE-2022-3886, exist in V8, an open-source JavaScript engine. It powers Google Chrome and its Speech Recognition feature as well.

The third flaw, tagged as CVE-2022-3887, affects Web Workers, a feature that allows scripts to run in the background. CVE-2022-3888 affects the WebCodecs API on Google Chrome. Google has also addressed the CVE-2022-3889 vulnerability, which, if exploited, could allow an attacker to feed malicious code to the V8 JavaScript engine.

One of the most concerning bugs in Chrome that Google patched, could allow attackers to escape the "sandbox" security measures that are commonly used to protect critical system components. The flaw was being tracked with a CVE tag CVE-2022-3890.

The update doesn't appear to be part of the regular update cycle. This is primarily because Google could issue an emergency update for Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux editions of Chrome.

Other Popular Web Browsers Could Be Vulnerable Too?

Incidentally, the V8 JavaScript engine is a part of the Chromium base on which the Chrome browser operates. Popular browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave, and others, are based on the Chromium project. Hence, it is likely that these browsers could receive similar updates in the near future.

It appears the concerning security flaws in the Chrome browser were discovered and reported by external security researchers. Google has kept the critical components of the flaws, and their exact functions, a secret, possibly to prevent exploitation.

Google has rewarded the researchers for responsibly conveying the required information, which allowed the company to quickly and quietly patch the vulnerabilities before they could be exploited.