Chrome 96 Release Plugs 25 Security Bugs for Windows, Mac and Linux Users

Google this week is rolling out Chrome 96 for Windows, Mac and Linux addressing 25 security flaws, including some high-severity bugs that bad actors could exploit to hack users.

“The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 96 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux,” writes Ben Mason of the Google Chrome team.

Chrome 96.0.4664.45 contains 25 security fixes, including 18 reported by external researchers. Seven of those are considered high-severity flaws, meaning it’s important to update as soon as possible.

The web giant has awarded upwards of $50,000 to those who contributed to this patch, with many rewards yet to be calculated based on the researchers’ findings.

“We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel,” Mason notes.

Chrome 96 was also promoted to the new extended stable channel for Windows and Mac endpoints in work environments, where automatic updates can be enabled via enterprise policies.

You can update your Chrome installment by accessing Settings ->About Chrome. Give the software a few seconds to fetch its latest update, in this case version 96.0.4664.45, then restart Chrome. Upon restart, the update should be installed.

Stay safe!