Google Chrome Has an “Emergency” Update

If you use Google Chrome, or a browser that runs on Chromium, like Microsoft Edge, listen up—you need to update as soon as possible to protect yourself from a new attack.

Google released an emergency patch for Chrome on Wednesday of last week. The keyword here is “emergency:” The company confirmed that the flaw this update patches has a known exploit that is active in the wild, which means that bad actors are already taking advantage of the flaw to attack Chrome users. As such, Google labeled this flaw “high” severity.

However, beyond this, there’s not much else we know about the flaw. We don’t know what element of Chrome or Chromium it affects, nor do we know what type of flaw it is. Google doesn’t even have a CVE assigned to the flaw yet. Instead, the company is referring to it only as “466192044” While we can only speculate, the reason behind this secrecy is likely to keep bad actors from learning too much about what Google knows about this flaw. Even though there is a known exploit, Google likely doesn’t want to spread information about it, to protect users who haven’t updated yet.

Regardless, it’s important to update your browser as soon as possible to implement the patch.