Google Emergency Update Fixes Chrome Zero-Day

Google fixed two vulnerabilities in its Chrome web browser as part of an emergency update this week, including a type confusion vulnerability that is already being exploited in the wild.

The type confusion vulnerability (CVE-2022-1364) impacts the JavaScript and WebAssembly engine in the browser. With this kind of flaw, a program will allocate a resource (such as a pointer or object) using one type but will later try to access the resource using an incompatible type. The vulnerability can be exploited to cause the browser to crash, trigger logical errors, or even execute arbitrary code.

“Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-1364 exists in the wild,” the company wrote in the alert. Details will be restricted until a majority of users have updated to Chrome version 100.0.4896.127 across the Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms.

The issues also affect other Chromium-based browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi.

The second issue that was fixed appears to be related to issues that were uncovered internally. The alert calls it “various fixes from internal audits, fuzzing, and other initiatives.”

This is the third emergency update for Chrome in 2022, and the third zero-day vulnerability patched so far this year. In March, Google (along with Microsoft) fixed a critical flaw to the Chromium v8 JavaScript engine (CVE-2022-1096) that was being actively exploited.