Chrome 157 Fixes 213 Security Flaws, Including 7 Critical Ones
Google released Chrome 157 on November 3 with fixes for 213 vulnerabilities, seven rated critical. The patch only applies once you restart the browser.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesGoogle released Chrome 157 for desktop on November 3, patching 213 security vulnerabilities. Seven of them carry the highest severity rating, "critical".
Chrome updates itself automatically, but the new version only takes effect when the browser is closed and reopened. Anyone who keeps Chrome running for days, or leaves a PC on overnight and resumes work the next morning, may therefore be running unpatched code for longer than they think.
How to update
Chrome checks for updates on its own and shows a "Relaunch" button when one is ready. Clicking it finishes the job, and your tabs come back after the restart; Incognito windows do not. On Windows and Mac, the safe version is 157.0.8103.38 or .39. If you see an older number, wait a while and check again. Android also received version 157 the same day, rolling out gradually through Google Play over several days.
What "critical" means here
According to the Chrome team's criteria, a critical flaw lets an attacker read and write files and network resources on a computer with the same privileges as the user. All seven critical bugs are memory-handling errors. Google is withholding technical details until the fix has spread widely.
Google's official blog does not say any of the flaws have been exploited in attacks, though that could change. Security outlet Malwarebytes noted that one of the seven, in graphics processing and affecting Android, could allow code execution outside the browser sandbox simply by opening a malicious HTML page.
The credits list also shows AI's growing role in bug hunting: 14 of the reports came from Anthropic researchers working with help from Claude, and seven more were filed under OpenAI's Codex Security name.
Apps worth a look
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ediviewer: read EDI files like documentsOpen EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.
giftdetect: the right gift in minutesPick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.
