{"id":97259,"date":"2019-11-01T16:05:03","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/?p=97259"},"modified":"2025-08-12T02:50:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:50:19","slug":"google-chrome-vulnerabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/google-chrome-vulnerabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need to Know About the Google Chrome Vulnerabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

While you might have been preoccupied with ghosts and goblins on Halloween night, a different kind of spook began haunting Google Chrome<\/a> browsers. On October 31st, Google Chrome engineers issued an urgent announcement for the browser across platforms due to two zero-day security vulnerabilities, one of which is being actively exploited in the wild (CVE-2019-13720).<\/p>\n

So, what is the Google Chrome zero-day exploit<\/a>? While there are few specific details known at this time, researchers did uncover that the bug is a use-after-free flaw, which is a memory corruption flaw that attempts to access a device\u2019s memory after it has been freed. If this occurs, it can cause a variety of issues including program crashes, execution of malicious code, or even allowing an attacker to gain full remote access to the device.<\/p>\n

The second of the two vulnerabilities (CVE-2019-13721) affects PDFium, a platform developed by Foxit and Google. PDFium provides developers with capabilities to leverage an open-source software library for viewing and searching for PDF documents. Like the first bug, this flaw is also a use-after-free vulnerability. However, there have been no reports of it being exploited by cybercriminals for malicious purposes yet.<\/p>\n

Security Tips to Safeguard Your Data<\/h2>\n

Luckily, Google has quickly acknowledged the vulnerabilities and is rolling out a patch for these bugs over the coming days. Meanwhile, follow these security tips to help safeguard your data and devices:<\/p>\n