Google has just officially rolled out the latest version of its web browser. On the program, Chrome 119 brings some new features, but above all fixes around fifteen security vulnerabilities.
Chrome 119 is officially available. After initiating the deployment of this update last week to a restricted group of users, Google has opened all the floodgates to push the latest version of Chrome to all users, and on all platforms. If this new version introduces some new features (and tests others), it mainly focuses on security. Chrome 119 fixes no less than fifteen security vulnerabilities.
15 flaws fixed, including 3 of high importance
As with each new version of Chrome, Google developers apply security patches. But this time, maybe a little more than usual. Indeed, Chrome 119 corrects around fifteen breaches, including three considered to be of high importance, and which brought in big profits for the researchers behind their discovery. The first, CVE-2023-5480 concerned an issue with the way online payments were handled by the browser. Vsevolod Kokorin (known under the pseudonym Slonser), a security researcher at Solidlab, pocketed $16,000 for his discovery.
The second, CVE-2023-5482, concerns an issue in the way Chrome verifies and validates USB devices connected to the computer. Security researchers from the Chinese company DarkNavy were rewarded $11,000 for this discovery.
Finally, the third and final flaw of high importance, CVE-2023-5849, was an integer overflow in Chrome’s handling of USB. Concretely, this flaw means that Chrome did not correctly manage mathematical operations linked to USB devices, thus causing capacity overruns in calculations. Malicious people could have exploited this flaw to execute arbitrary code in the browser.
New for tab groups
Have you gotten into the habit of organizing your many open tabs in Chrome by grouping them? Chrome 119 should interest you. Google is testing the ability to save, recall, and sync your tab groups in its browser.
Disabled by default, the function is available after activating a dedicated flag in the browser’s experimental functions menu. You can test for yourself by going to the address chrome://flags/#tab-groups-save and activating the flag Tab Group Save and Sync.
Once in place, a simple right-click on the tab group will allow you to activate the option Save group.
Likewise, if the tab group has been closed, right-clicking in the Chrome menu bar will allow you to Reopen the closed group.
Chrome monkey Safari on iOS
While Chrome is mostly used on Android, this is not the case on iOS. The vast majority of iPhone users use Safari, Apple’s native web browser. Google knows this, but still hopes to reverse the trend. Also, to try to attract iPhone owners, the Mountain View company decided to copy Apple. On iOS, Chrome 119 now also displays the address bar at the bottom of the screen by default. An option that already exists on Safari, since iOS 16.
If this new display doesn’t suit you, don’t panic, it’s entirely possible to go back. To do this, simply go to the Settings from the browser, then in the menu Address barto select Up.
Another major new feature on iOS, Chrome now offers a widget allowing you to quickly access your bunch of passwords.
Chrome 119, latest version to run on Android 7
Finally, on Android, Chrome 119 will be the last version of the browser to work on devices running Android Nougat (Android 7).
“ Chrome 119 will be the last version of Chrome compatible with Android Nougat. Affected users will receive a message inviting them to update their operating system. Chrome 120 will not be compatible with Android Nougat and will not be provided to users of this system. » indicates Google on its support pages.
In principle, the Chrome update to version 119 should be offered to you automatically by the browser. If this is not the case, you can force its installation by going, from the browser’s main menu, to Help > About Chrome. The browser will then automatically search for the latest available version before downloading and installing it. You will then need to restart the browser to finalize the installation of the update.