First Chrome Update for 2025 Addresses High-Risk Security Flaws

Google this week released the first major Chrome update for 2025, delivering a handful of new features and several security fixes – including some labeled as high-priority.

First major version-update of the year

“The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 132 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux,” Srinivas Sista announced Tuesday on the Chrome Releases blog. “This will roll out over the coming days/weeks.”

Version 132 introduces some new functionality for avid users, including an enhanced search feature with Google Lens, and the option to pin frequently used things to the toolbar as buttons.

But the security side of the update is perhaps equally important.

Five ‘high-risk’ bugs addressed

According to the release notes, Chrome 132 addresses 16 security flaws recently found by researchers who make it their job to invoke situations where the browser might slip up and give hackers an advantage. Finding these vulnerabilities before the bad guys do ensures Google has the edge and can close hackers’ window of opportunity before they go on to develop working exploits.

Of those 16 bugs, five are characterized as ‘high-risk’ flaws, meaning a motivated attacker who finds a way to exploit one of these vulnerabilities stands a good chance of compromising your security or privacy.

The bugs were discovered in components like Navigation, Skia, Metrics, Tracing, and the browser’s V8 JavaScript engine.

Threat actors have historically targeted these key components to gain a foothold on the victim’s unpatched browser and try a compromise with malicious code of their making – but also with spyware, known to be used in targeted attacks.

Keep your browser patched

As always, Bitdefender recommends you deploy security updates for all your devices and software/apps the moment they're available – especially when the vendor tags the addressed issues as serious or potentially exploited by threat actors in the wild.

Chrome is designed to check for the latest version on every relaunch. But if you haven’t closed your Chrome browser in a while, you can kickstart the process manually.

Visit the three-dotted options menu, choose Settings -> About Chrome, let the browser fetch the latest version from Google’s servers, and relaunch Chrome when prompted. Remember to save your work before doing so.

Android and iOS users are also treated to Chrome 132. Chrome for Android gets the same security fixes as the desktop counterpart, unless otherwise noted by Google. On iOS, the new Chrome brings the usual “stability and performance improvements,” with no security fixing necessary.

To get the latest version of Chrome for your mobile device, simply pluck it from your official app store.

As of today, Chrome users will want to be on the following versions to ensure the latest security issues are addressed:

·      Chrome 132.0.6834.83/84 for Windows and Mac

·      Chrome 132.0.6834.83 for Linux

·      Chrome 132.0.6834.79 for Android

·      Chrome 132.0.6834.78 for iOS

For peace of mind, consider running a dedicated security solution on all your personal devices.