Displaying items by tag: Chrome

Google has pushed out a new patch for Chrome to deal with a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-3079. In the patch release Google is clear that this vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild and that users of both Chrome and Edge should update to the latest version as soon as possible. The report of the flaw was from Google’s own threat research team making this an even more urgent event.

Google’s Chrome (and derivatives) is one of the more popular browsers on the market. It reached the height of popularity via a well-orchestrated marketing push, dissatisfaction with Microsoft, and being one of the faster and more secure browsers (at the time). However, the popularity of the browser and some less than stellar security policies in the Chrome Web Store have made it a nice target for attackers.
Goggle recently removed a total of 32 malicious extensions from the store with downloads possibly totaling 75 million.

Google pushed out a n Out-of-band patch for Chrome due to a high-severity on Friday (March 25th, 2022). The patch was pushed out quickly as the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-1096 is being actively exploited in the wild. CVE-2022-1096 is a type confusion vulnerability that exists in the JavaScript Engine used by Chrome and was reported to Google by an Anonymous researcher last week.

In mid-1999 software and hardware developers uncovered a bug of sorts that, at first glance, seemed like it would end the computer world as we know it. It was called the Y2K bug and centered around the issue that somehow developers and built their code to with the first two digits of the year input field as hard coded to 19. This mean that when everything rolled over to year 2000, computers and software would see it as 1900. Not exactly where you want to be.

Firefox was once one of the leading “alternative” browsers on the internet. After the death of Netscape Firefox came along and offered people an alternative to the building Windows Internet Explorer and even to Safari on macOS. This trend continued into the mobile arena, at least until Google launched the Chrome Browser. Although Chrome had a bit of a rocky start (with clear indications of data collection), it has grown in popularity and gobble up about 64% of the browsing on the internet.

Google has announced the release of a new version of Chrome. The new version comes with fixes for eight vulnerabilities. Once of these vulnerabilities CVE-2022-0609, which is describes as a user-after-free vulnerability is already being exploited in the wild. This has led them to advise users to updated Chrome as soon as possible to avoid compromise. The flaws were found by Google’s own Threat Analysis Group.

Last week Google announced that they will no longer be accepting ads that feature Flash. This new should really come as no surprise as Flash (and its spirit brother Java) have taken a beating on the security front for years. Abobe and Oracle have been unable to keep the bad guys from running rampant with their code. Of course the change will not take place overnight so everyone has the chance to swap out that old and insecure Flash for the new and (insecure) HTML5.

If there was ever an indication that virtual reality might make it in the mainstream market it is when the web browsers start to support it. So far we have heard rumblings that Microsoft, Google and even Mozilla will be throwing their lot in with the VR gang. One of the big reasons for this is that Facebook has already pushed into that territory with their purchase of Oculus VR. After buying the virtual reality headset maker there have been multiple rumors of Facebook making a VR social world as an extension of their existing social network.

It seems that Windows 8.x is not selling as well as Microsoft would like it to. After boasting about how game changing the new OS would be for end users, the only game that seems to be changing is Microsoft’s revenue stream. Just before the new OS came out we talked about the impact of Windows 8 on OEMs especially with Microsoft entering into direct competition. Most OEMs were not happy about the licensing costs they would have to pay for Windows 8/RT and felt that Microsoft’s entry would make things even more unfair.

Mozilla recently launched a pre-beta version of Firefox called Aurora and brought a completely new user interface, greater customization of the touch screen, as well as some new features. Redesign project so far has been designed exclusively for the nightly version of Firefox, and it was in development for two years.