Google have released an emergency update for Google Chrome for Desktop to address a publicly disclosed vulnerability that has active exploits in the wild. This is the seventh zero-day vulnerability that has been fixed in Google Chrome so far in 2022. A blog post on the Chrome Releases Google blog was published last week with limited details about this security fix, however Google have kept some information about this vulnerability restricted, to allow for the majority of users to update their Chrome apps before further bug details are released. 

 Tracked as CVE-2022-3723, this high severity vulnerability has been given a CVSS rating of 8.8, most likely due to its public disclosure and verified exploit, however it is also possible that this vulnerability may allow for remote code execution. It is described as a type confusion vulnerability, and is found in the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, but further details have not yet been provided, so assumptions have been made on how a potential exploit may work based on this vulnerability type. Type confusion vulnerabilities can allow read or write commands to be executed out of bounds of the memory buffer. This occurs due to the type assigned by the program to a resource being incompatible with the type used to later access this same resource. An exploit of this kind usually relies on the allocated buffer type being smaller than the code attempting to access it, which can cause the application to crash unexpectedly, or potentially facilitate arbitrary code execution.  

 As well as Google Chrome users, the users of other chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge are also being encouraged to ensure that their browsers are up to date to ensure that they are protected from other similar vulnerability exploits. Mac and Linux users need to update to version 107.0.5304.87 of Chrome for Desktop to apply this most recent security patch. Windows users should update Chrome to versions 107.0.5304.87 or 107.0.5304.88. This can be done by opening the Chrome browser, navigating to ‘Settings’, then selecting the menu option ‘About Chrome’. This will then show you the current version of the application in use, and any available updates that can be downloaded and installed.