Update Chrome As Soon As Possible on Android and Windows
If you are using Google Chrome on Windows or Android, you need to update it as soon as possible. Each platform has a new browser update that includes fixes for recently discovered security vulnerabilities. The bad news is that one of these vulnerabilities has a known exploit that means your browser and its data are at risk if you don’t update it now.
Google has confirmed these updates in their Chrome Release for Windows and Android blogs. Windows users will need to update to version 103.0.5060.114, while Android users will have access to version 103.0.5060.71. The company says these updates fix four security vulnerabilities in Chrome for Windows and three vulnerabilities in Chrome for Android. Ironically, Google has excluded one of the vulnerabilities from its list:
- [$TBD][ 1341043 ] High CVE-2022-2294: WebRTC heap buffer overflow. This was reported by Jan Wojtěsek of the Avast Threat Intelligence team on July 1, 2022.
- [$7500][ 1336869 ] High CVE-2022-2295: V8 type confusion. Reported by avaue and Buff3tts at SSL on June 16, 2022.
- [$3000][ 1327087 ] High CVE-2022-2296: use after free use in Chrome OS Shell. Reported by Khalil Jani on May 19, 2022 (PC only)
While it’s important to protect yourself from all possible security bugs, it’s the first of these three that is most concerning, as Google has confirmed in its update log that there is a known exploit for CVE-2022-2294 in the wild. When there is an exploit for a security vulnerability, it means that at least someone knows how to exploit the bug, if they haven’t already. This is dangerous as a likely one billion Chrome users on Windows and Android will be at risk until the bug is fixed and their devices are updated.
CVE-2022-2294 is a buffer overflow vulnerability. This happens when a program tries to write more data to a memory cell than that cell can accept, causing the data to overflow somewhere else. These vulnerabilities are not uncommon, but if they are discovered, attackers can exploit them. If Chrome is not fully up to date on your PC or Android device, you are at risk.
While Google is currently not publicly aware of the exploits of other vulnerabilities, it is likely that such exploits will eventually be discovered. The longer you wait for an update, the more vulnerabilities you will have to deal with.
For some reason, these security flaws do not affect Mac or iOS users. As such, you won’t see a new Chrome update on those platforms just yet.
How to update Google Chrome on Windows and Android
To protect your browser and data, update Chrome now. To do so soon for Windows, click the three dots in the top right corner of your browser window, then choose Help > About Google Chrome . Let Chrome search for a new update. If available, select Relaunch to install the browser update.
To update the app on Android, go to the Google Play Store. Find Google Chrome, then select Update next to the app. If you have automatic updates turned on, the app can update itself: if you only see the “Open” option, you’re done.
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