If you are a Windows user with Chrome installed on your PC, then this latest warning will impact you—it’s critical you update your browser as soon as you can…
Another Chrome security update has just been issued, with the Stable channel updated to 124.0.6367.78/.79. This release includes a critical fix to the underlying graphics engine of the type that has allowed attackers to execute code on target machines in the past—albeit no news yet as to any exploitation this time around.
The update also includes two high-severity memory fixes—the kind typically seen in such updates. Google has acknowledged that such memory vulnerabilities in its core engine are the most frequently discovered and exploited. As usual, there is no further information “until a majority of users are updated with a fix.”
Given that Google has designated the first fix—essentially a vulnerability to potential code manipulation—as critical, it seems highly likely it’s a credible threat. And once the fix becomes public, it’s important that users update as soon as they can—the clock is ticking for any exploitation.
Usually, a critical fix might have been the biggest Chrome news of the week, but not this time. The other news is that the death of Chrome’s dreaded tracking cookies has been delayed once again—this time into early 2025, at least.
The issue is Google’s need to balance the privacy of its users with the seemingly fair treatment of its advertisers, especially when it essentially plays both gamekeeper (as owner of the browser) and poacher (as the world’s largest ad machine).
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers,” Google said in a post mid-week, “and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem.”
That’s a critical update of an entirely different kind.
The update comes as Google’s ongoing engagement with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) tries to carve a path through this messy situation. “We will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4,” Google confirmed. “Assuming we can reach an agreement, we envision proceeding with third-party cookie deprecation starting early next year.”
Google is in something of a bind here, given its unique role in the industry. As web users become ever more privacy savvy, the gap between where Chrome is today and Apple’s Safari remains too wide. Chrome is an excellent browser, and its users rightly want to see it line up more closely with the alternatives.
Google seems to agree—notwithstanding its awkward Incognito Mode stumble—but it needs to find a compromise that doesn’t kill its ad model as well as those cookies.
Meanwhile, the bigger open question is around AI, of course, and just what this will mean for browser searching and advertising in the coming years. All told, by the time these cookies finally disappear, we may be in new territory anyway.