Urgent: 2nd Chrome zero-day vulnerability patched in 5 days
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Joshua Long
On Wednesday, April 19, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi browsers were updated to address yet another zero-day vulnerability that has been actively exploited in the wild.
Google says that it “is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2136 exists in the wild.” This means that patches need to be installed urgently. This particular vulnerability exists in Chromium’s Skia graphics library.
This update comes hot on the heels of CVE-2023-2033, another actively exploited vulnerability, that Google and others patched on Friday.
Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi are all based on the Chromium open-source Web browser project. Other Chromium-based browsers may need updates as well.
Opera, another well-known Chromium-based browser, had not yet released a security update as of the time this article was published. The vulnerability presumably impacts Opera as well, so an update may be forthcoming either this week or next week. The company usually releases weekly browser updates on either Wednesday or Thursday. Opera had finally released a patch for last Friday’s CVE-2023-2033 on Tuesday, just a day before the second major vulnerability came to light. Update: Opera finally released a fix for CVE-2023-2136 on Wednesday, April 26—an entire week later.
Opera finally patched CVE-2023-2136 today. That’s right—@Opera left its users vulnerable to an actively exploited zero-day for an entire week. 😨
— Josh Long (the JoshMeister) (@theJoshMeister) April 27, 2023
If you care about security, don’t use an Opera browser. Period. #infosec https://t.co/j97VQzvOuc
How to update Chromium-based desktop browsers
Mac users can update their Chrome, Edge, or Brave browsers by clicking on the application menu (e.g. “Chrome” or “Microsoft Edge,” next to the Apple logo menu), and then clicking the first item in that menu (e.g. “About Google Chrome” or “About Microsoft Edge”). The browser will check for updates, and if an update is available, it will prompt you to restart the app to complete the update.
When an Opera update for macOS is released, the process will be the same as the other browsers above.
Vivaldi for macOS has a slightly different update procedure. After clicking on the Vivaldi menu (next to the Apple menu), click on “Check for Updates…” to ensure you have the latest version installed.
Windows users can update their browsers by following the steps provided by each browser maker: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera.
How to update Chromium-based mobile browsers
Android users should check the Google Play Store app to receive the latest versions of browsers and other apps.
Mobile browsers on iOS and iPadOS use Safari’s WebKit engine, rather than Chromium’s Blink and V8 engines. Therefore, this particular vulnerability does not affect the iOS or iPadOS versions of any Web browsers. If you would like to update your iPhone and iPad browsers anyway, you can do so via the App Store. (Here’s how to manually check for and install updates.) Note that Vivaldi is not yet available for iOS.
How can I learn more?
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