Yet another Chrome zero-day security exploit, the fourth this year, has just been confirmed by Google. It warns that hack attacks have been spotted in the wild with Android and Windows users in the crosshairs.
In a 4th of July posting, Google confirmed an update to Chrome 103.0.5060.114 for Windows would start rolling out in the days and weeks to come. While the Chrome browser will automatically update to this patched version, and protection will be in place once the application is restarted, there’s a very good reason not to wait this month. That reason is CVE-2022-2294.
What is CVE-2022-2294?
This high-severity security vulnerability, reported by a member of the Avast Threat Intelligence team, is only described as a heap buffer overflow in RTC. Full details are being withheld until such a time that most Chrome users have had a chance to update. The reason that it should be sooner, much sooner in fact, than later is that this is the zero-day threat. It was only reported on 1 July, and Google has rushed to fix it while confirming it “is aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-2294 exists in the wild.”
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Two other high-severity vulnerabilities have also been confirmed as fixed in this latest update: CVE-2022-2295 (type confusion in V8) and CVE-2022-2296 (use after free in Chrome OS Shell).
Chrome for Android is also under active attack
At the same time, Android users are also being advised to update as soon as possible for the same reason. CVE-2022-2294 also impacts the Android Chrome app, and Google has confirmed that attacks have been spotted in the wild. The protected Chrome for Android version number is 103.0.5060.71, which will be available via Google Play
What Windows users need to do now to protect against this new threat to Google Chrome
Windows users are advised to install the Chrome update as a matter of some urgency. You can do this by heading for the Help|About option in the Chrome menu, forcing an update check, and automatically downloading and installing it as required. Remember that you will not be protected until you restart your browser.
