Billions of Google Chrome users must do ‘3-tap’ update immediately as ‘critical severity’ warning issued

GOOGLE has released an emergency security update for Chrome to address a zero-day vulnerability.

The currently-exploited vulnerability has been tracked as CVE-2023-4863.

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“Zero-days” are flaws that have not yet been patched or fixed by software developers – meaning that they can be fully exploited by hackers and cybercriminals.

They often stem from unknown issues and are especially dangerous until coders can fix the problem.

Once a solution patch is written and used, the exploit is no longer called a zero-day exploit.

CVE-2023-4863

This specific vulnerability can be exploited to crash the browser or execute arbitrary code.

Arbitrary code can allow a hacker to execute commands on a target device.

Google quickly announced the exploit in its Chrome blog, after being notified by Apple Security Engineering and Architecture (SEAR) and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab last week.

According to a SecurityWeek report, the exploit is rated as a “critical severity.”

HOW TO STAY SAFE

Your best bet to protect your device from this bug is to update your browser.

Google urges users to install their new update as soon as possible: version 116.0.5845.187 for Mac and Linux, and 116.0.5845.187/.188 for Windows.

To do this, go to the three-dot icon in the top right of your Chrome ribbon. 

Click on the Help option, and then select About Google Chrome from let the drop-down menu appear. 

You should be able to see here if you can update your browser or not.

If you see an update click on Install and then relaunch your browser.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk