Chrome picks up an update with hundreds of security patches

Google has rolled out Chrome v151.0.7922.71/.72 for Windows and Mac. For Linux, it’s .71. This update pushes 370 security fixes into the stable channel, and seven of these fixes address critical-severity bugs.

Most were caught internally by Google’s own security team. However, a small number of high-severity issues were discovered through external sources, and they included a $36,000 award. The bugs include things like memory errors, which attackers can exploit to run malicious code on a victim’s machine.

Google published the details in an official post. On Google Git, you can also find the raw commit history; this is largely for developer reference and not a changelog for regular users. The company also mentioned that some specific bug details and links will be restricted until most users have installed the fix.

Speaking of regular users, there aren’t really any “user-facing” changes in this update. Most of them are just security fixes, though I’d still recommend updating your browser since some of these security issues are rather serious.

Here’s a list of some security issues that were addressed:

1. A security problem with browser memory that attackers can potentially exploit to take
   control. There are various “memory reusing” bugs in the list.
2. WebGPU-related flaws, where it doesn’t properly check incoming data. Bad inputs can cause issues.
   Issues with Skia.
3. Bugs in the auto-update system.
4. Issues with ANGLE not properly checking data.
5. Site isolation bugs.

Beyond the critical fixes, the update also includes 71 fixes rated as high severity, 170 rated as medium, and 122 low. At the time of writing, there’s no public record of these issues being exploited. Google hasn’t said so either.

I’ve checked for this update myself on macOS. Sure enough, the v151.0.7922 update showed up immediately. If you haven’t already updated, head over to About Chrome, and then it’ll automatically check for updates. I assume it has begun rolling out now to most people.

In other Chrome news, camera prompts will soon be safer and a lot less annoying. More on that here.

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