Google updates Chrome to third beta

Google Wednesday released the third beta version of Chrome, the browser it introduced nearly two months ago, to fix a single security vulnerability and address several other problems.

Chrome 0.3.154.9 will be automatically pushed to current users, said Mark Larson, the browser's product manager, in a note posted to a Google blog on Wednesday. Users who had set Chrome to receive the more frequent developer updates have had most of the fixes and changes in 0.3.154.9 for some time, however.

Larson characterized the one bug patched in the update as a "medium" threat, and said the fix shut down an address-spoofing flaw that attackers could use to trick users into thinking they were at a safe site when they were actually visiting a malicious or phishing URL.

Also integrated into 0.3.154.9 were several non-security fixes as well as a number of design changes. Among the latter: A modification to the way the browser handles downloads of executable files. That change, though designed to block a months-old "carpet bomb" bug that could be exploited to dupe users into downloading and launching malware, was criticized last week by the security researcher who reported it to Google as a short-term fix only.
"The best solution was if they just won't download the files until the user approves, or download them to a random directory ... as it's done with other browsers, like Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet Files folder or Firefox's random profile directory," said Israeli research Aviv Raff last week.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine