Update Now: Chrome Browser Vulnerable To Mysterious But Active Attack

Update Now: Chrome Browser Vulnerable to Mysterious But Active Attack

Last updated: 2025/12/11 at 10:08 PM

News Room Published 11 December 2025

Time to update: Someone is attacking Google’s Chrome browser for desktop with a mysterious but serious vulnerability.

Google released an emergency patch to address the threat on Wednesday, warning that an “exploit” for the Chrome vulnerability exists in the wild.

The company classifies the flaw as “high” severity. But all other details are unknown, including the nature of the threat. That’s unusual since Google typically specifies the type of flaw it’s patching while withholding technical details to avoid tipping off hackers.

For now, the vulnerability is merely known as “466192044” since Google is still coordinating with cyber authorities on a CVE number to officially designate the threat. But because the vulnerability is being actively exploited, there’s a good chance a security researcher discovered the threat targeting real users and reported it to Google.

Despite the lack of official details, The Hacker News connected the “466192044” number to a bug ID for Google’s Chromium project, suggesting the flaw might relate to the company’s open-source Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine (ANGLE). That engine acts as a graphics command translator for different platforms with the project noting, “Chrome uses ANGLE for all graphics rendering on Windows.” The bug ID report on GitHub also suggests a buffer overflow vulnerability was found in the open-source project. Such flaws have been known to lead to program crashes and even executing malicious computer code.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, making it unclear if the patched flaw is connected to ANGLE.

For now, the patch is available through Chrome version 143.0.7499.109/.110 for Windows and Mac. For Linux, the version number is 143.0.7499.109. Google says the fix is rolling out in the coming days and weeks, but we got it today.

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To update manually, go to Settings > About Chrome > Relaunch once the new version has finished loading, or visit Google’s support page on downloading patches. Chrome can also download the update automatically if you relaunch the browser.

Microsoft is also preparing a patch for the Edge browser, which uses Google’s Chromium browser project. “Microsoft is aware of the recent exploits existing in the wild. We are actively working on releasing a security fix,” the company said on Wednesday.