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Category — Chrome
Chrome Users Can Now Sync Passkeys Across Devices with New Google PIN Feature

Chrome Users Can Now Sync Passkeys Across Devices with New Google PIN Feature

Sep 20, 2024 Encryption / Digital Security
Google on Thursday unveiled a Password Manager PIN to let Chrome web users sync their passkeys across Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, and Android devices. "This PIN adds an additional layer of security to ensure your passkeys are end-to-end encrypted and can't be accessed by anyone, not even Google," Chrome product manager Chirag Desai said . The PIN is a six-digit code by default, although it's also possible to create a longer alpha-numeric PIN by selecting "PIN options." This marks a change from the previous status quo where users could only save passkeys to save passkeys to Google Password Manager on Android. While the passkeys could be used on other platforms, it was necessary to scan a QR code using the device where they were generated. The latest change removes that step, making it a lot easier for users to sign in to online services using passkeys by simply scanning their biometrics. Google noted that support for iOS is expected to arrive soon
Google to Block Entrust Certificates in Chrome Starting November 2024

Google to Block Entrust Certificates in Chrome Starting November 2024

Jun 29, 2024 Cybersecurity / Website Security
Google has announced that it's going to start blocking websites that use certificates from Entrust starting around November 1, 2024, in its Chrome browser, citing compliance failures and the certificate authority's inability to address security issues in a timely manner. "Over the past several years, publicly disclosed incident reports highlighted a pattern of concerning behaviors by Entrust that fall short of the above expectations, and has eroded confidence in their competence, reliability, and integrity as a publicly-trusted [ certificate authority ] owner," Google's Chrome security team said . To that end, the tech giant said it intends to no longer trust TLS server authentication certificates from Entrust starting with Chrome browser versions 127 and higher by default. However, it said that these settings can be overridden by Chrome users and enterprise customers should they wish to do so. Google further noted that certificate authorities play a privil
Cyber Story Time: The Boy Who Cried "Secure!"

Cyber Story Time: The Boy Who Cried "Secure!"

Nov 21, 2024Threat Detection / Pentesting
As a relatively new security category, many security operators and executives I've met have asked us "What are these Automated Security Validation (ASV) tools?" We've covered that pretty extensively in the past, so today, instead of covering the " What is ASV?" I wanted to address the " Why ASV?" question. In this article, we'll cover some common use cases and misconceptions of how people misuse and misunderstand ASV tools daily (because that's a lot more fun). To kick things off, there's no place to start like the beginning. Automated security validation tools are designed to provide continuous, real-time assessment of an organization's cybersecurity defenses. These tools are continuous and use exploitation to validate defenses like EDR, NDR, and WAFs. They're more in-depth than vulnerability scanners because they use tactics and techniques that you'll see in manual penetration tests. Vulnerability scanners won't relay hashes or combine vulnerabilities to further attacks, whic
Google Patches Yet Another Actively Exploited Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability

Google Patches Yet Another Actively Exploited Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability

May 16, 2024 Browser Security / Vulnerability
Google has rolled out fixes to address a set of nine security issues in its Chrome browser, including a new zero-day that has been exploited in the wild. Assigned the CVE identifier  CVE-2024-4947 , the vulnerability relates to a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported by Kaspersky researchers Vasily Berdnikov and Boris Larin on May 13, 2024. Type confusion vulnerabilities  arise when a program attempts to access a resource with an incompatible type. It can have  serious impacts  as it allows threat actors to perform out-of-bounds memory access, cause a crash, and execute arbitrary code. The development marks the third zero-day that Google has patched within a week after  CVE-2024-4671  and  CVE-2024-4761 . As is typically the case, no additional details about the attacks are available and have been withheld to prevent further exploitation. "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4947 exists in the wild," the company  said .
cyber security

Creating, Managing and Securing Non-Human Identities

websitePermisoCybersecurity / Identity Security
A new class of identities has emerged alongside traditional human users: non-human identities (NHIs). Permiso Security's new eBook details everything you need to know about managing and securing non-human identities, and strategies to unify identity security without compromising agility.
New Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability CVE-2024-4761 Under Active Exploitation

New Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability CVE-2024-4761 Under Active Exploitation

May 14, 2024 Vulnerability / Zero Day
Google on Monday shipped emergency fixes to address a new zero-day flaw in the Chrome web browser that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2024-4761 , is an out-of-bounds write bug impacting the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported anonymously on May 9, 2024. Out-of-bounds write bugs  could be typically exploited by malicious actors to corrupt data, or induce a crash or execute arbitrary code on compromised hosts. "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4761 exists in the wild," the tech giant  said . Additional details about the nature of the attacks have been withheld to prevent more threat actors from weaponizing the flaw. The disclosure comes merely days after the company patched  CVE-2024-4671 , a use-after-free vulnerability in the Visuals component that has also been exploited in real-world attacks. With the latest fix, Google has addressed a total of six zero-days since the sta
Google Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation Amid U.K. Regulatory Scrutiny

Google Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation Amid U.K. Regulatory Scrutiny

Apr 25, 2024 Technology / Privacy
Google has once again  pushed its plans  to deprecate third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome web browser as it works to address outstanding competition concerns from U.K. regulators over its Privacy Sandbox initiative. The tech giant said it's working closely with the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and hopes to achieve an agreement by the end of the year. As part of the new timeline, it aims to start phasing out third-party cookies early next year, making it the third such extension since the tech giant  announced  the plans in 2020, postponing it from  early 2022 to late 2023 , and again to the  second half of 2024 . Privacy Sandbox refers to a  set of initiatives  that offers privacy-preserving alternatives to tracking cookies and cross-app identifiers in order to serve tailored ads to users. While Google has since  enabled  the features to a subset of Chrome browser users as of last year, the U.K. watchdog, alongside the Information Commissioner's Of
Google Chrome Adds V8 Sandbox - A New Defense Against Browser Attacks

Google Chrome Adds V8 Sandbox - A New Defense Against Browser Attacks

Apr 08, 2024 Software Security / Cybersecurity
Google has announced support for what's called a  V8 Sandbox  in the Chrome web browser in an effort to address memory corruption issues. The sandbox, according to V8 security technical lead Samuel Groß,  aims  to prevent "memory corruption in V8 from spreading within the host process." The search behemoth has  described  V8 Sandbox as a lightweight, in-process sandbox for the JavaScript and WebAssembly engine that's designed to mitigate common V8 vulnerabilities. The idea is to limit the impact of V8 vulnerabilities by restricting the code executed by V8 to a subset of the process' virtual address space ("the sandbox") and isolating it from the rest of the process. Shortcomings affecting V8 have accounted for a significant chunk of the zero-day vulnerabilities that Google has  addressed  between  2021  and  2023 , with as many as 16 security flaws discovered over the time period. "The sandbox assumes that an attacker can arbitrarily and conc
Google to Delete Billions of Browsing Records in 'Incognito Mode' Privacy Lawsuit Settlement

Google to Delete Billions of Browsing Records in 'Incognito Mode' Privacy Lawsuit Settlement

Apr 02, 2024 Browser Security / Data Security
Google has agreed to purge billions of data records reflecting users' browsing activities to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the search giant tracked them without their knowledge or consent in its Chrome browser. The  class action , filed in 2020, alleged the company misled users by tracking their internet browsing activity who thought that it remained private when using the "incognito" or "private" mode on web browsers like Chrome. In late December 2023, it  emerged  that the company had consented to settle the lawsuit. The deal is currently pending approval by the U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. "The settlement provides broad relief regardless of any challenges presented by Google's limited record keeping," a court filing on April 1, 2024, said. "Much of the private browsing data in these logs will be deleted in their entirety, including billions of event level data records that reflect class members' private
Update Chrome Now: Google Releases Patch for Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability

Update Chrome Now: Google Releases Patch for Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability

Sep 28, 2023 Zero Day / Vulnerability
Google on Wednesday rolled out fixes to address a new actively exploited zero-day in the Chrome browser. Tracked as  CVE-2023-5217 , the high-severity vulnerability has been described as a  heap-based buffer overflow  in the VP8 compression format in  libvpx , a free software  video codec  library from Google and the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Exploitation of such buffer overflow flaws can result in program crashes or execution of arbitrary code, impacting its availability and integrity. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on September 25, 2023, with fellow researcher Maddie Stone  noting  on X (formerly Twitter) that it has been abused by a commercial spyware vendor to target high-risk individuals. No additional details have been disclosed by the tech giant other than to acknowledge that it's "aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-5217 exists in the wild." The latest discovery b
Enhancing TLS Security: Google Adds Quantum-Resistant Encryption in Chrome 116

Enhancing TLS Security: Google Adds Quantum-Resistant Encryption in Chrome 116

Aug 11, 2023 Encryption / Browser Security
Google has announced plans to add support for quantum-resistant encryption algorithms in its Chrome browser, starting with version 116. "Chrome will begin supporting  X25519Kyber768  for establishing symmetric secrets in  TLS , starting in Chrome 116, and available behind a flag in Chrome 115," Devon O'Brien  said  in a post published Thursday. Kyber was  chosen  by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the candidate for general encryption in a bid to tackle future cyber attacks posed by the advent of quantum computing.  Kyber-768  is roughly the security equivalent of  AES-192 . The encryption algorithm has already been adopted by  Cloudflare ,  Amazon Web Services , and IBM. X25519Kyber768 is a hybrid algorithm that combines the output of  X25519 , an elliptic curve algorithm widely used for key agreement in TLS, and Kyber-768 to create a strong session key to encrypt TLS connections. "Hybrid mechanism
Zero-Day Alert: Google Issues Patch for New Chrome Vulnerability - Update Now!

Zero-Day Alert: Google Issues Patch for New Chrome Vulnerability - Update Now!

Jun 06, 2023 Browser Security / Vulnerability
Google on Monday released security updates to patch a high-severity flaw in its Chrome web browser that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2023-3079 , the vulnerability has been described as a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript engine. Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with reporting the issue on June 1, 2023. "Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 114.0.5735.110 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page,"  according  to the NIST's National Vulnerability Database (NVD). The tech giant, as is typically the case, did not disclose details of the nature of the attacks, but  noted  it's "aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-3079 exists in the wild." With the latest development, Google has addressed a total of three actively exploited zero-days in Chrome since the start of the year - CVE-2023-2033  (CVSS score: 8.8) - Type Co
Google Gets Court Order to Take Down CryptBot That Infected Over 670,000 Computers

Google Gets Court Order to Take Down CryptBot That Infected Over 670,000 Computers

Apr 27, 2023 Botnet / Cyber Crime
Google on Wednesday said it obtained a temporary court order in the U.S. to disrupt the distribution of a Windows-based information-stealing malware called  CryptBot  and "decelerate" its growth. The tech giant's Mike Trinh and Pierre-Marc Bureau  said  the efforts are part of steps it takes to "not only hold criminal operators of malware accountable, but also those who profit from its distribution." CryptBot is estimated to have infected over 670,000 computers in 2022 with the goal of stealing sensitive data such as authentication credentials, social media account logins, and cryptocurrency wallets from users of Google Chrome. The harvested data is then exfiltrated to the threat actors, who then sell the data to other attackers for use in data breach campaigns. CryptBot was  first discovered  in the wild in December 2019. The malware has been traditionally delivered via maliciously modified versions of legitimate and popular software packages such as Goog
Google Chrome Hit by Second Zero-Day Attack - Urgent Patch Update Released

Google Chrome Hit by Second Zero-Day Attack - Urgent Patch Update Released

Apr 19, 2023 Browser Security / Zero-Day
Google on Tuesday rolled out emergency fixes to address another actively exploited high-severity zero-day flaw in its Chrome web browser. The flaw, tracked as  CVE-2023-2136 , is  described  as a case of  integer overflow  in  Skia , an open source 2D graphics library. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on April 12, 2023. "Integer overflow in Skia in Google Chrome prior to 112.0.5615.137 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page,"  according  to the NIST's National Vulnerability Database (NVD). The tech giant, which also fixed seven other security issues with the latest update, said it's aware of active exploitation of the flaw, but did not disclose additional details to prevent further abuse. The development marks the second Chrome zero-day vulnerability to be exploited by malicious actors th
Hackers Create Malicious Dota 2 Game Modes to Secretly Access Players' Systems

Hackers Create Malicious Dota 2 Game Modes to Secretly Access Players' Systems

Feb 13, 2023 Game Hacking / Cyber Threat
An unknown threat actor created malicious game modes for the Dota 2 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game that could have been exploited to establish backdoor access to players' systems. The modes exploited a  high-severity flaw  in the V8 JavaScript engine tracked as  CVE-2021-38003  (CVSS score: 8.8), which was  exploited as a zero-day  and addressed by Google in October 2021. "Since V8 was not sandboxed in Dota, the exploit on its own allowed for remote code execution against other Dota players," Avast researcher Jan Vojtěšek  said  in a report published last week. Following responsible disclosure to Valve, the game publisher  shipped fixes  on January 12, 2023, by upgrading the version of V8. Game modes are essentially  custom capabilities  that can either augment an existing title or offer completely new gameplay in a manner that deviates from the standard rules. While publishing a custom game mode to the Steam store includes a vetting process from
Google Rolling Out Passkey Passwordless Login Support to Android and Chrome

Google Rolling Out Passkey Passwordless Login Support to Android and Chrome

Oct 12, 2022
Google on Wednesday officially rolled out support for passkeys, the next-generation authentication standard, to both Android and Chrome. "Passkeys are a significantly safer replacement for passwords and other phishable authentication factors," the tech giant  said . "They cannot be reused, don't leak in server breaches, and protect users from phishing attacks." The feature was  first announced  in May 2022 as part of a broader push to support a common passwordless sign-in standard. Passkeys, established by the FIDO Alliance and also backed by  Apple and Microsoft , aim to replace standard passwords with unique digital keys that are stored locally on the device. To that end, creating a passkey requires confirmation from the end-user about the account that will be used to log in to the online service, followed by using their biometric information or the  device   passcode . Signing in to a website on a mobile device is also a simple two-step process that en
Experts Detail New RCE Vulnerability Affecting Google Chrome Dev Channel

Experts Detail New RCE Vulnerability Affecting Google Chrome Dev Channel

May 27, 2022
Details have emerged about a recently patched critical remote code execution vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine used in Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers. The issue relates to a case of use-after-free in the instruction optimization component, successful exploitation of which could "allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the browser." The flaw, which  was identified  in the Dev channel version of Chrome 101, was reported to Google by Weibo Wang, a security researcher at Singapore cybersecurity company  Numen Cyber Technology  and has since been quietly fixed by the company. "This vulnerability occurs in the instruction selection stage, where the wrong instruction has been selected and resulting in memory access exception," Wang said . Use-after-free flaws  occur  when previous-freed memory is accessed, inducing undefined behavior and causing a program to crash, use corrupted data, or even achieve execution
Hackers Increasingly Using Browser Automation Frameworks for Malicious Activities

Hackers Increasingly Using Browser Automation Frameworks for Malicious Activities

May 26, 2022
Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a free-to-use browser automation framework that's being increasingly used by threat actors as part of their attack campaigns. "The framework contains numerous features which we assess may be utilized in the enablement of malicious activities," researchers from Team Cymru  said  in a new report published Wednesday. "The technical entry bar for the framework is purposefully kept low, which has served to create an active community of content developers and contributors, with actors in the underground economy advertising their time for the creation of bespoke tooling." The U.S. cybersecurity company said it observed command-and-control (C2) IP addresses associated with malware such as  Bumblebee ,  BlackGuard , and  RedLine Stealer  establishing connections to the downloads subdomain of Bablosoft ("downloads.bablosoft[.]com"), the maker of the Browser Automation Studio (BAS). Bablosoft was previously
Cytrox's Predator Spyware Targeted Android Users with Zero-Day Exploits

Cytrox's Predator Spyware Targeted Android Users with Zero-Day Exploits

May 20, 2022
Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) on Thursday pointed fingers at a North Macedonian spyware developer named Cytrox for developing exploits against five zero-day (aka 0-day) flaws, four in Chrome and one in Android, to target Android users. "The 0-day exploits were used alongside n-day exploits as the developers took advantage of the time difference between when some critical bugs were patched but not flagged as security issues and when these patches were fully deployed across the Android ecosystem," TAG researchers Clement Lecigne and Christian Resell  said . Cytrox is alleged to have packaged the exploits and sold them to different government-backed actors located in Egypt, Armenia, Greece, Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire, Serbia, Spain, and Indonesia, who, in turn, weaponized the bugs in at least three different campaigns. The commercial surveillance company is the maker of  Predator , an implant  analogous  to that of NSO Group's  Pegasus , and is known to hav
Android and Chrome Users Can Soon Generate Virtual Credit Cards to Protect Real Ones

Android and Chrome Users Can Soon Generate Virtual Credit Cards to Protect Real Ones

May 12, 2022
Google on Wednesday took to its annual developer conference to announce a host of privacy and security updates, including support for virtual credit cards on Android and Chrome. "When you use autofill to enter your payment details at checkout, virtual cards will add an additional layer of security by replacing your actual card number with a distinct, virtual number," Google's Jen Fitzpatrick  said  in a statement. The goal, the search giant, said to keep payment information safe and secure during online shopping and protect users from  skimming attacks  wherein threat actors inject malicious JavaScript code to plunder credit card numbers and sell them on the black market. The feature is expected to roll out in the U.S. for Visa, American Express, Mastercard, and Capital One cards starting this summer. Interestingly, while Apple offers an option to mask email addresses via  Hide My Email , which enables users to create unique, random email addresses to use with apps
Google Releases Urgent Chrome Update to Patch Actively Exploited Zero-Day Flaw

Google Releases Urgent Chrome Update to Patch Actively Exploited Zero-Day Flaw

Apr 15, 2022
Google on Thursday shipped emergency patches to address two security issues in its Chrome web browser, one of which it says is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2022-1364 , the tech giant described the high-severity bug as a case of type confusion in the V8 JavaScript engine. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group has been credited with reporting the flaw on April 13, 2022. As is typically the case with actively exploited zero-day flaws, the company acknowledged it's "aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-1364 exists in the wild." Additional details about the flaw and the identity of the threat actors have been withheld to prevent further abuse. With the latest fix, Google has patched a total of three zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome since the start of the year. It's also the second type confusion-related bug in V8 to be squashed in less than a month - CVE-2022-0609  - Use-after-free in Animation CVE-2022-1096  - Type confusio
Google Issues Urgent Chrome Update to Patch Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability

Google Issues Urgent Chrome Update to Patch Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability

Mar 26, 2022
Google on Friday shipped an out-of-band security update to address a high severity vulnerability in its Chrome browser that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2022-1096 , the zero-day flaw relates to a type confusion vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript engine. An anonymous researcher has been credited with reporting the bug on March 23, 2022. Type confusion errors, which arise when a resource (e.g., a variable or an object) is accessed using a type that's incompatible to what was originally initialized, could have serious consequences in languages that are not  memory safe  like C and C++, enabling a malicious actor to perform out-of-bounds memory access. "When a memory buffer is accessed using the wrong type, it could read or write memory out of the bounds of the buffer, if the allocated buffer is smaller than the type that the code is attempting to access, leading to a crash and possibly code execution," MITRE's Common Weakness Enum
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