Chrome 81.0.4044.92

A new version of Chrome addresses thirty-two security issues in previous versions.

Details of the vulnerabilities fixed in Chrome 81.0.4044.92 are sketchy, which is normal for newly-discovered and mostly unpatched security bugs. Google has published vulnerability identifiers (CVE numbers), along with links to Google’s internal bug tracking system, and credited the researchers who discovered them.

The links are mostly non-functional, and will remain so until Google decides that it’s safe to publish the vulnerability details. Even the CVE numbers aren’t that helpful: if you search the CVE list at Mitre.org for one of these recent vulnerabilities, you’ll see a placeholder page with no details — for now.

In a perfect world, it would be easy to discover exactly what a software update would change, before it’s installed. Sadly, opportunistic assholes have made this impractical and even dangerous for security-related updates. So, regardless of how one feels about the developer, at some level we have no choice but to trust them with security updates.

Chrome’s ‘three vertical dots’ menu is the place to start if you want to check which version you’re running and install an update. Drill down to Help > About Google Chrome. If an update is available, it will be installed automatically, after which you’ll see a Relaunch button.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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