By Contributor Zak Doffman
Update now warning for billions of Chrome users.
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Google has issued an emergency update for Chrome users, after its own Threat Analysis Group discovered and reported an actively exploited vulnerability last week. When a single security fix is rolled out this quickly, it鈥檚 critical to update immediately.
Google warns it is 鈥渁ware that an exploit for CVE-2025-6554 exists in the wild,鈥 and that 鈥渁ccess to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix. We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven鈥檛 yet fixed.鈥
ForbesGoogle Update Warning鈥30% Of All Android Users Now At RiskBy Zak Doffman
The high-severity vulnerability is a 鈥淭ype Confusion in V8,鈥 Google鈥檚 Javascript engine, which could allow hackers to remotely execute code on devices. This issue was mitigated 鈥渂y a configuration change pushed out to Stable channel across all platforms.鈥
That config change took place a week ago and has been followed by this urgent software update. As usual, it will download to your device. You then need to restart your browser to ensure it installs. All your regular browsing tabs should be restored, but your Incognito private browsing tabs will not, so save any work before you exit Chrome.
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Attacks exploiting CVE-2025-6554 will come by way of specially crafted HTML pages, and as usual while the assumption is this is very specifically targeted for now, once a vulnerability is in the public domain that can change quickly.
ForbesChange Your Browser Settings Now鈥斺楳assive Security Risk鈥橞y Zak Doffman
Chrome is essentially the default browser on Windows, despite Microsoft鈥檚 efforts to push Edge more widely. As such, this is primarily a Windows threat. That said, whatever device you鈥檙e using to run Chrome should be updated today.
We saw something similar last month 鈥 with another emergency update 鈥 which should frame the urgency. The latest update for Windows/ Mac is 138.0.7204.96/.97. We can expect this to prompt a U.S. government update mandate and deadline.
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