Category: Google Chrome

AVG Chrome Extension Makes Users Vulnerable

By | December 30, 2015 | 0 Comments

AVG Chrome Extension Makes Users VulnerableYou would think that installing extension that is bundled with your anti-virus software will make you more secure but as it turns out, at least in this case, it’s the opposite.

What are we talking about? The extension called WebTuneUp, which flags search results that might appear suspicious, although Google already does the very same thing, it looks like AVG did a pretty decent job at convincing that you need more protection.

And just as with every software, a new exploit has been found, as explained by Tavis Ormandy, “This extension adds numerous JavaScript API’s to Chrome, apparently so that they can hijack search settings and the new tab page. The installation process is quite complicated so that they can bypass the chrome malware checks, which specifically tries to stop abuse of the extension API. Anyway, many of the API’s are broken.”
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SHA-1 Certificates Will Soon Be Deemed Invalid by Google Chrome

By | December 22, 2015 | 0 Comments

SHA-1 Certificates Will Soon Be Deemed Invalid by Google ChromeAt least the new ones.

As a part of Google’s program to get rid of the unsafe certificates and clean up the web, the search giant has announced that starting from early 2016, Google Chrome 48 will display a certificate error if the site:

– Uses the SHA-1 based certificate,
– The certificate is issued after January 1, 2016
– And it chains to a public CA
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Google Chrome Tip: Block Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoilers

By | December 15, 2015 | 1 Comment

Google Chrome Tip: Block Star Wars: The Force Awakens SpoilersI’m not your father.

If you are not going to watch the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie as soon as it is released and would like to save yourself from potentially ruining your own mood by reading spoilers, then here is a tip for you.

A company called Priceless Misc has developed an extension called “Force Block”, which will block pages that are likely to spoil the movie, it also includes whitelisting in case of a false alarm as well as pattern detection.
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Chrome Dev 48 Now Live

By | November 29, 2015 | 0 Comments

Chrome Dev 48 Now LiveMeet the Web Bluetooth.

Recently, Google has pushed a new Chrome Dev build, which bumps the version number to 48.0.2564.8 and brings at least one interesting new feature.

What are we talking about? The search giant has started working on implementing Web Bluetooth (currently available on Chrome OS and Chrome Dev for Android, with PC support to follow soon), which allows you to pass the “messages” to devices back and forth without them being connected to the Internet and all based on their capabilities.

For example:
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A Patent Suit Against Google Chrome Has Been Revived

By | November 25, 2015 | 0 Comments

A Patent Suit Against Google Chrome Has Been RevivedNow here’s something bit out of the blue.

As it turns out, back in 2013, Google was sued by Alfonso Cioffi and three other co-inventors, who claimed that all versions of Google Chrome as well as Google Nexus series and Chromebook laptop PCs infringed their anti-malware patents (which were issued in 2012, “system and method for protecting a computer system from malicious software” (U.S. Patent Nos. RE43,529, RE,43103, RE43,500, and RE43,528)).

While the case got thrown out in December (mostly because Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Frank Rozman agreed that it will be impossible to win on the court’s interpretation of the patents), the things has since changed, as it seems as the case was recently revived by the Federal Circuit, which means that Google will have to go back to court and continue fighting these claims.
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Benchmarks: Windows 10 Mobile Edge vs. Google Chrome vs. Firefox

By | November 22, 2015 | 1 Comment

Benchmarks: Windows 10 Mobile Edge vs. Google Chrome vs. FirefoxWith the release of Windows 10 Mobile “RTM” (which is more of a Beta than the Final version of a mobile OS), guys at Rewritable have decided to test three web browsers performance: Edge (Build 10586.11), Google Chrome 46 and Firefox 42.

To keep the benchmark as fair as possible, Lumia 640 and Motorola Moto G 4G were used, as both of these share same specs:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
Adreno 305
720p screen
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Latest Chrome Exploit Puts Millions of Users at Risk

By | November 16, 2015 | 4 Comments

Latest Chrome Exploit Puts Millions of Users at RiskRecently, at the Tokyo PacSec conference, Chinese researched has discovered and successfully exploited Google’s Project Fi Nexus 6 device running the latest version of Android (6.0 Marshmallow). As a result, he was able to install fake app into the phone that could theoretically be used to take the device control away from the user. In a demo example, he installed a simple BMX bike game, just to show what’s possible.

As noted by the PacSec member, Dragos Ruiu, it was a “one-shot exploit” which “did everything in one go instead of chaining multiple vulnerabilities”.
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Google Chrome Will Finally Drop Support for Windows XP in 2016

By | November 11, 2015 | 0 Comments

Google Chrome Will Finally Drop Support for Windows XP in 2016As well as Windows Vista and the older versions of Mac OS X.

We are not exactly sure for how many more years will we keep writing about Windows XP, but the good news: there will soon be one less topic to talk about: Google Chrome abandoning the decade old OS.

Yesterday, the search giant has announced (again) that they will be dropping the support for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 on April, 2016. However, the browser will still work on these platforms and the only thing that you won’t be receiving is security fixes.
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Google Might Merge Chrome OS into Android

By | November 5, 2015 | 0 Comments

Google Might Merge Chrome OS into AndroidIf you haven’t heard already, the Wall Street Journal has recently posted a rumor that for the last 2 years, Google has been actively working to merge Chrome OS into Android. However, the company has always denied such rumors, all the way back since 2013.

According to the article, Google will reveal its single operating system sometime in 2017, with early show off expected next year. Oh, and yes, the search giant has again denied the rumor, although this time they simply stated that Google does not plan to kill the Chrome OS, instead of simply saying: no, we are not merging Chrome OS into Android.
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Google Does the Right Thing, Drops Useless Features

By | October 20, 2015 | 1 Comment

Google Does the Right Thing, Drops Useless FeaturesMakes few people upset as a result.

Now here’s a pretty controversial move. Focusing on the masses and what they use, Google has decided to drop some of the least popular features in its Chrome web browser.

For example, the upcoming release will drop notifications center (which was added back in 2013), as pretty much no one was using it, according to Google.
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