ID: IRCNE2011091253
Date: 2011-09-17
According to "ComputerWorld", Google yesterday patched 32 vulnerabilities in Chrome and upgraded the stable edition of the browser to version 14.
The company called out a pair of developer-oriented additions to Chrome 14 and noted new support for Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, including full-screen mode and vanishing scrollbars.
Google last upgraded Chrome's stable build in early August. Google produces an update about every six weeks.
Fifteen of the 32 vulnerabilities were rated "high," the second-most-serious ranking in Google's four-step scoring system, while 10 were pegged "medium" and the remaining seven were marked "low."
None of the flaws were ranked "critical," the category usually reserved for bugs that may allow an attacker to escape Chrome's anti-exploit sandbox. Google has patched several critical bugs this year, the last time in April.
Six of the vulnerabilities rated high were identified as "use-after-free" bugs, a type of memory management flaw that can be exploited to inject attack code, while seven of the bugs ranked medium were "out-of-bounds" flaws.
As per its practice, Google barred access to the Chrome bug-tracking database for the 32 vulnerabilities to prevent outsiders from obtaining details on the flaws. The company only opens the database after users have had time to update the browser.
Google also added a pair of developer-only features to Chrome 14, including support for the Web Audio API (application programming interface) and for "native client," an open-source technology that runs software written in C and C++ within Chrome's security sandbox.
The Mac version of Chrome 14 also supports Lion's new approach to scrollbars, which appear only when a user is actively scrolling through the browser window. Chrome 14 also now runs in Lion's full-screen mode.
Chrome 14 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Google's Web site. Users already running the browser will be updated automatically.
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