Brave just rolled out a patch that fixes a critical security flaw. The official advisory is to install the update immediately. The update is rolling out as version 1.94.121 and was pushed after the team found out that attackers were actively exploiting this vulnerability.

Since Brave is built on Chromium, it inherits the same underlying engine flaws that hit other browsers based on Chromium. In fact, earlier this week we reported that Google Chrome picked up a patch that fixed 2 critical vulnerabilities, along with 24 other issues that could be exploited. They followed that with another patch that fixed 12 more issues, one of them being the flaw that Brave is now warning about.

The bug in question is CVE-2026-85046, which is a zero-day vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript engine. Brave.

In a post on X, the privacy-focused browser team wrote: “Today’s browser update (v1.94.121) contains a fix for a Chromium vulnerability found to be exploited in the wild”.

brave-browser-exploit-fix-post-september

Following that, Sooraj, a Brave employee, also quoted the post on X, noting that there’s no reason to delay the update because attackers can quickly turn published patches into working exploits. “If Brave says ‘Relaunch to update,’ do it now,” he wrote.

brave-browser-employee-exploit-fix-post

Brave has a growing user base, with the browser now sitting at over 126 million active users. That’s a large number of users attackers could target if they don’t update the browser.

That said, while staying secure matters, Brave also focuses on other aspects of the browser, including performance. A recent test by the team showed that the browser is faster than Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. So you’re not sacrificing any speed for security.

The update in question is rolling out for desktop users already. The Android release is also expected to arrive soon. Folks on iOS or iPadOS don’t have to wait for the update since all browsers on iOS are built on WebKit, not Chromium.

We stand out from the tech-media crowd because we break news stories; we mainly bring you stuff that you won’t find anywhere in the mainstream tech media. Our stories have been picked up by some of the world’s most popular websites and media outlets—more info is available here.
user-profile user-profile

Dwayne Cubbins
2997 Posts

I cover fast-moving stories across apps, online platforms, and everyday tech — phones, wearables, consoles, and whatever else people are fighting with this week. Bugs, rollouts, scams, policy enforcement, and the occasional internet-culture rabbit hole are all fair game. My goal is simple — make confusing tech news readable. When I'm not working, I'm working out or chilling with my dog. Got a tip? You can find me on X @dcubbins.