A Chrome fix for an in-the-wild exploit is out—Check your version

Google has announced an update for Chrome that fixes an in-the-wild exploit. Chrome Stable channel has been updated to 107.0.5304.87 for Mac and Linux, and 107.0.5304.87/.88 for Windows.

The vulnerability at hand is described as a type confusion issue in the V8 Javascript engine.

Mitigation

If you’re a Chrome user on Windows, Mac, or Linux, you should update as soon as possible. Most of the time, the easiest way to update Chrome is to do nothing—it should update itself automatically, using the same method as outlined below but without your involvement. However, if something goes wrong—such as an extension blocking the update—or if you never close your browser, you can end up lagging behind on your updates.

So, it doesn’t hurt to check now and again. And now would be a good time, given the severity of the vulnerabilities in this batch.

My preferred method is to have Chrome open the page chrome://settings/help, which you can also find by clicking Settings > About Chrome.

Updating Chrome

If there is an update available, Chrome will notify you and start downloading it. Then all you have to do is relaunch the browser in order for the update to complete.

Chrome is up to date

After the update the version should be 107.0.5304.87 or later.

CVE-2022-3723

Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database. Its goal is to make it easier to share data across separate vulnerability capabilities (tools, databases, and services).

This is the one that urged the out of bounds update was CVE-2022-3723, a type confusion issue with Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to trigger data manipulation on the targeted system.

Type confusion is possible when a piece of code doesn’t verify the type of object that is passed to it. The program allocates or initializes an object using one type, but it later accesses it using a type that is incompatible with the original. Details about the vulnerability will not be released before everyone has had a chance to update, but it seems that in this case the manipulation with an unknown input can lead to privilege escalation.

The V8 engine is a very important component within Chrome that’s used to process JavaScript commands. A very similar vulnerability was found in March of 2022. This was also a type confusion issue in the V8 engine, which turned out to affect other Chromium based browsers as well. So keep an eye out for updates on any other Chromium based browser you may be using, such as Edge.

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