News
        
        Google Fixes Bugs in Chrome Frame Affecting IE 8
        
        
        
			- By Kurt Mackie
 - November 20, 2009
 
		
        
		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.