Hey, my Bay Area cybersecurity and healthcare buddies! We’ve got a bit of a heads-up for you regarding our ever-reliable buddy, Google Chrome. Now, we all know how fantastic Chrome is, but, like every software out there, it occasionally has its moments. This month’s hiccup? A robust vulnerability, promptly caught and tagged as CVE-2024-5274. Sounds ominous, right? But not to worry – we’re here to unpack this for you.
CVE-2024-5274 (quite a mouthful, isn’t it?) is acknowledged as a type confusion fault in something known as the ‘V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine’. Imagine the engine of your car having a bug that causes it to confuse diesel for petrol. Not ideal, right? And that’s more or less what’s happening here.
What’s critical to note is that this ‘V8 engine’ doesn’t just run Chrome. It’s also under the hood of Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and a bunch of other Chromium-based browsers. So, CVE-2024-5274 isn’t exclusive to Chrome. We have Clément Lecigne and Brendon Tiszka, our good folks from Google and Chrome Security, who spotted this on May 20, 2024, to thank for being vigilant!
Now, Google was quick on their feet and rolled out fixes for CVE-2024-5274 promptly – making it their fourth zero-day patch this month. And folks, this is where we come into the picture. As Chrome users, we need to ensure we’re allowing these patches to help us. In layman’s terms, get your browsers updated, people! Launch those Chrome updates for your Windows, macOS, or Linux platforms and get the security level up to 125.0.6422.112/.113.
To update your browser, look for the three vertical dots at the corner of your Chrome window – it’s like calling a tech lifeline. When you find them, your next stop is Settings > About Chrome. From there, your browser takes the reins, checking for updates and, once it gets the updates installed, cueing you to restart Chrome. It’s as easy as pie!
Remember how we said this was the fourth zero-day patch? There’s a list of other vulnerabilities, all similarly cheeky nomenclatured. Some of these include out-of-bounds bugs like CVE-2024-0519 and CVE-2024-4671, or type confusion bugs like CVE-2024-4947. Just like with CVE-2024-5274, updating your browser ensures that you’re safe from these.
So that’s the 411, my friends. Let’s keep our Chrome shiny, updated, and as secure as Alcatraz used to be! After all, we are from the San Francisco Bay Area, where we don’t take our tech threats lightly! Stay safe, people, and till our next chat, happy browsing!
by Morgan Phisher | HEAL Security
