Google has released an emergency Chrome security update to address the first zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks since the start of the year.
"Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild," the search giant said in a security advisory published on Friday.
As first reported by Bleeping Computer, the update is rolling out to all users in the Stable Desktop channel, and it will reach the entire user base over the coming days or weeks.
Chrome users should immediately upgrade to version 112.0.5615.121, as it addresses the CVE-2023-2033 vulnerability on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
How to get the update
This update is available right now, and you can check to see if you're up-to-date by going to the menu in your Chrome browser. Click on About Chrome.
Then it will take you to the About page and let you know if your Chrome browser is up to date. If not it will download the update and then indicate it needs a relaunch to be updated.
It only takes about 30 seconds, but please ensure that all the work you may be doing on other pages has been saved. I may have forgotten to do so and had to rewrite an entire article.
Once that is all done, you can go about your regular browsing business. Thankfully this bug was reported by Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and addressed quickly. This threat team is tasked with scouring Chrome to find and eradicate security threats in defense of Google users.
Google's task force is constantly dealing with threats such as confusion flaws that allow attackers to crash browsers by exploiting flaws or weaknesses within its code. Thankfully, these hard-working folks are at it 24/7 to keep us and our data safe.
Although Google caught this one rather quickly, they have not shared any further information regarding the incident yet beyond the fact that it was being actively exploited. Google said, "Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix," I don't need to know; I am just happy they caught it.
A big thank you goes out to Google's TAG team, hope you get to sit back and enjoy a cold one.
