News

Google Fixes Bugs in Chrome Frame Affecting IE 8

Google has fixed bugs in Google Chrome Frame, including one that Microsoft called out as a security problem.

Chrome Frame is designed to let Web developers use HTML5 features that Google claims are not supported in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 browser. When Chrome Frame was announced in September, Microsoft quickly noted that it posed security problems.

On Wednesday, Google issued a bug fix announcement indicating that a patch would automatically update Chrome Frame. The patch solves an issue where IE 8 freezes intermittently. It also includes a security fix for a "cross-origin bypass" vulnerability. Apparently, this is the security issue pointed out by Microsoft and others.

Google indicated in its announcement that this vulnerability was of high severity and important to patch.

"An attacker could have bypassed cross-origin protections," Google wrote. "Although important, 'High' severity issues do not permit persistent malware to infect a user's machine. We're unaware of any exploitation of this issue."

Google credited "Billy Rios and Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) and also to Lostmon for finding and reporting this vulnerability responsibly."

To make Chrome Frame work, Web developers place a snippet of code in their Web page. The code switches IE's Trident layout engine to the open source WebKit one used in the Google Chrome browser. According to Google, this technology allows IE 8 to access HTML5 and JavaScript improvements that currently aren't supported in Microsoft's browser.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.