Google Releases Emergency Chrome Update for 3.2 Billion Users

Google has issued an emergency security update for all Chrome users as it confirms that attackers are already exploiting a high severity zero-day vulnerability.

The emergency update to version 99.0.4844.84 of Chrome is highly unusual in that it addresses just a single security vulnerability. A fact that only goes to emphasize how serious this one is.

Chrome will automatically updated, but given there are 3.2 billion copies out there, that will likely take a month. In addition, Chrome doesn’t actually update until all browser windows are closed and Chrome is restarted.

Google is not releasing details about CVE-2022-1096 other than it is a type confusion error in Chrome’s JavaScript engine.

MICROSOFT HAS NOW CONFIRMED THAT THE PROBLEM ALSO EXISTS IN EDGE AND THERE IS AN UPDATE FOR EDGE TOO.

THAT LIKELY MEANS THAT THIS AFFECTS EVERY OTHER CHROMIUM BASED BROWSER (SUCH AS BRAVE, VIVALDI, OPERA AND OTHERS).

We recommend that you make sure that all of your browsers are updated quickly and people will need to close all browser windows and restart the browser for the update to take effect.

The safe versions are EDGE 99.0.1150.55 and CHROME 99.0.4844.84.