24 Jun 09 Google fix critical chrome bug

The Enquirer reports that Google has fixed up a vulnerability in it’s latest release – 2.0.172.33

Writing in its bog, Google said that if a pesky hacker got ahold of it, they could crash the browser or run code with the privileges of the logged-on user.

Exploiting the security flaw would require luring the user to a poisoned web site, but Google did not provided any other details.

Whilst it’s a pretty large hole, google’s internal security team found it and not an outside hacker so it’s nice to see the security guys at google doing their jobs.

Tags: chrome security, critical, updates

Filed in Flaws, News, Security with 0 Comments

16 Sep 08 How to get Chrome working on a Mac

Matt Cutts Reports;

CrossOver ported the open-source Chromium browser over to Mac and Linux using Wine. Bear in mind that this is more of a proof-of-concept and not the official version, but you can still download the binaries and play with it.

Interesting… it’s a bit of a long work around just to get Chrome working, but if you’re determined to get it running at least there is a way

Matt also talked about a Chrome lookalike extension for Firefox… not sure why anyone would use that as it’s still Firefox in disguise but none the less it shows the success of Google Chrome and the massive potential it has at theis early stage.

The one thing Matt mentions that not many people including myself noticed, is the fact when you CTRL + V stuff from your clipboard it preserves formatting. HOWEVER, CTRL + Shift + V only pastes text. Pretty handy stuff

Tags: Chromium, CrossOver, Firefox, google chrome, Open source

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09 Sep 08 German Government Against Chrome

Blogoscoped.com report that the German government have issued a warning to citizens using Google Chrome. Here’s a quote from German news Tagesschau (translated);

“The Federal Office for Information Security warned internet users of the new browser Chrome. The application by the company Google should not be used for surfing the internet, as a spokesperson for the office told the Berliner Zeitung.”

So basically, the German government fear Google is gathering too much information about it’s people German government being over cautious and protective or Google in the wrong with it’s lax privacy policies and mass data collection?

Tags: chrome, Federal Office for Information Security, German government, google, google chrome

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08 Sep 08 Google: Lack of Mac Chrome ‘embarrassing’

Sergey Brin (Google co-founder) has described the lack of a Mac Version for their newly released Chrome browser as ‘embarrassing’.

He also said the release date for Mac support will be ‘months away’. No doubt apple fans aren’t gonna be happy with that Check out the video here for more details… (around 4mins 30secs for the juicy stuff)..

Tags: browser, chrome, google, Macintosh, Sergey Brin

Filed in News, Videos with 1 Comment

04 Sep 08 Secret Functions in Google Chrome

Here’s some shortcuts you can use in Google Chrome to get all sorts of weird and wacky information;

about:version

Tells you what version of chrome you’re using

about:plugins

Gives you information about any installed plugins you’re using.

about:cache

Shows you what files are cached and their locations.

about:memory

Shows you how many tasks you’re running and how much memory they’re using.

about:stats

Google say this page is ’secret’ – not anymore

about:histograms

Too much maths for my liking…

about:dns

Gives some dns record details

about:network

Gives you information on network status and performance.

about:crash

Type this in to chrome and you get a sad face in a folder.

about:hang

We get a ‘don’t clog the tubes’ message if we enter about:hang.

about:internets

about:internets gives us a ‘The tubes are clogged!’ message

Tags: about, google chrome, secrets, tips, Tricks

Filed in Features, Tricks with 2 Comments

04 Sep 08 First Security Flaw in Chrome

It was bound to come along sooner rather than later and readwriteweb.com reports on how Google Chrome’s download feature can be exploited by hackers.

The flaw has got to do with Chrome’s lax downloading policy. When a user downloads a file and clicks the tab below (below) to open it, it is opened straight away without any prompts or warning.

For a demo of what i’m talking about check out this file (don’t worry, nothing in it, just a demo). It was compiled by security expert Aviv Raff.

Apparently it was a known bug in WebKit (the framework behind Chrome). Safari patched up this issue months ago, but Google were using an old WebKit version to work with Chrome and hence the problem.

Tags: chrome, flaw, google, Security

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03 Sep 08 Google Chrome Speed Test

Cnet published an article about how Google Chrome is kicking ass on the speed front, proving they’ve delivered what they’ve promised – a super fast browser.