Govt warns of critical Chrome bug that can let hackers steal user data

Indian government's cyber security wing, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a advisory to all Google Chrome users in the country warning them about a critical vulnerability that can lead malicious hackers to gain access to users PCs and even access their personal data.

In its advisory, CERT-In wrote that multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Google's Chrome web browser, which could be exploited by a hacker to gain advanced privileges on the targeted user's PC, bypass security controls and gain access to sensitive information. In addition to this, these vulnerabilities could also let hackers to remotely execute a malicious code on a targeted PC and even performa a Denial of Service or DoS attack.

For the unversed, a Denial of Service attack is a type of cyber attack wherein hackers aim to make the targeted system unavailable to the intended users by downgrading its performance or making it completely inaccessible.

In total, the CERT-In has highlighted a total of eight bugs ranging between low and high severity rating that can be used by hackers to their advantage. "Multiple vulnerabilities exist in Google Chrome due to inappropriate implementation in Blink, Autofill, Views, Paint, FileSystem, use after free in Media, Accessibility, and insufficient policy enforcement in Navigation. A remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by executive a specially crafted webpage," CERT-In wrote in its advisory.

"Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow the remote attacker to gain escalated privileges, bypass security control, gain access to sensitive information, conduct remote code execution or perform denial of service (DoS) condition on the target system," the organisation added.

Google Chrome: How to update the browser

Step 1: On your computer, open Chrome web browser.

Step 2: At the top right corner, select More option.

Step 3: Next, select Help and then About Google Chrome.

Step 4: Select Relaunch.