Google issues urgent Chrome update to all users today to avoid 'worrying flaw'

If you're a Chrome user, you'll want to listen up.

When was the last time you updated your web browser?

You'll likely be aware that you need to keep your phone up to date, to ensure everything is safe and secure, but you might not have realized you need to do the same for your web browser.

And Google has issued a statement, explaining why Chrome has recently been updated.

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It reads: 'The Stable channel has been updated to 124.0.6367.201/.202 for Mac and Windows and 124.0.6367.201 for Linux which will roll out over the coming days/weeks.'

OK, that's a bit complicated, but TLDR: an update has been issued.

But why? The tech giant notes: 'Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4671 exists in the wild.'

Essentially, that means that a bug was detected in Chrome - something that hackers could insidiously exploit to gain control of someone's device. And that could be really, really bad.

Mike Walters, president and co-founder of cybersecurity company Action1, told the Mirror: "Such vulnerabilities could lead to system crashes, data corruption, or worse - if skillfully exploited by an attacker, they could result in unauthorized access and control of a victim's system."

But in good news, Google was made aware of the issue, and acted quickly.

Walters continued: "Google has acknowledged that an exploit exists in the wild, which means that attackers are actively using this vulnerability to compromise user systems. This elevates the severity of the situation and requires immediate action."

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As you can probably imagine, this is the kind of update you definitely want to make sure you have - and doing so is easy.

Some Chrome browsers will automatically update, but you'll want to check - just in case.

All you have to do is launch the browser, click on the three dots on the top right of the screen, tap 'About Chrome' and check you're up to date.

If it says: 'Chrome is up to date - Version 124.0.6367.202' you're good to go, but if it's not quite there, you'll want to click the 'relaunch' and that should sort you out.

So there you have it - you're now a bit wiser about how your browser works. That's not the only revelation we've had recently - next, you'll want to have a look at what incognito mode really means. Spoiler alert: it's not quite what you think it is.