Government issues ‘severe warning’ for Google Chrome: What users must do

The government has issued a high-priority security advisory for a severe security flaw that may affect millions of Google Chrome users. According to the ‘warning’ issued by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the “high-severity” vulnerabilities may allow attackers to take remote control of their computers.

The alert, issued on December 19, identifies critical flaws in the browser across Windows, macOS and Linux platforms. Security experts warn that “multiple vulnerabilities in Google Chrome for Desktop, which could be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted system.”

It noted that all end-user organisations and individuals using Google Chrome for Desktop are a target, and impact can be potential for memory corruption.




“Multiple vulnerabilities exist in Google Chrome due to out-of-bounds read, write in V8 and use-after-free in WebGPU. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by convincing a user to visit a specially crafted or malicious webpage on the targeted system. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted system,” CERT-In said.

How to secure your browser and system

Google has already released a security patch to address these risks. To protect your data and system, users must manually check for and install the latest update.

Follow these steps to update Chrome on Windows or Mac:

• Open Chrome and click the three dots in the upper right corner.
• Select 'Help' from the dropdown menu.
• Click on 'About Google Chrome.'
• The browser will automatically check for updates and begin the installation.
• Relaunch the browser once the update is complete to ensure the patches are active.