If you’re using Google Chrome to read this, or you use the popular browser every day, you should check you are running the latest version to avoid falling foul of security issues. Google has just released an update for Chrome users worldwide that fixes a worrying bug.
Recently reported by Google’s Threat Analysis Group, who comb through Google apps to find ways hackers could steal your data before they have a chance to. However in this case, Google knows that criminals were already taking advantage of the flaw in the browser before it was discovered, which marks the bug with the dreaded ‘zero-day’ label – meaning Google has zero days to fix it!
Bleeping Computer reported the bug is the third zero-day event of the year for Chrome, and was caused “by an out-of-bounds read and write weakness in Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine”, showing the technical level of intricate detail required to keep us all safe in our day to day web browsing.
“Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2025-5419 exists in the wild,” Google said in a Chrome channel update post. It said the bug affects Windows, Mac and Linux systems, and the update “will roll out over the coming days/weeks”.
You may already be protected and up to date because of how Chrome works. Cleverly, the web browser is able to automatically update in the background, and will only stay on an old version if you never close the application down.
If you think that might be the case, head to your desktop or laptop now and restart the Chrome app.
You can also check in the Help > About Chrome section of the app to see what version number you are running, if you want to be sure. For Windows and Mac, the fixed version is number 137.0.7151.68/.69, while Linux users must seek out version 137.0.7151.68.
In order to keep users as safe as possible, Google opts to keep the exact nature of the bug under wraps until it sees Chrome users across the globe are running the new version.
“Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix,” Google said. “We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.”
The update also fixed two more security issues with Chrome, so make sure you update your browser as soon as possible.
