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Security·2 min read

Chrome zero-day 2026: eighth exploited flaw patched, update now

Google has patched a Chrome zero-day that attackers were already exploiting. It is the eighth of 2026, as many as in all of last year. Here is how to update.

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Image: 01net.com
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Google has pushed an emergency Chrome update to fix a zero-day that attackers were already using against real people. It is the eighth Chrome zero-day of 2026, and the fix is a few clicks away.

A zero-day is a flaw that criminals exploit before the vendor can ship a patch. The update, released earlier this week for Windows, macOS and Linux, fixes nine security holes in total. Google says it is aware of an exploit being used "in the wild", which simply means attacks are happening now.

The flaw sits in the part of Chrome that reads XML, a text format software uses to store and swap data. It is a "use after free" bug, a common memory error in browsers: Chrome releases a chunk of memory but keeps using it, and an attacker can slip their own data in. To pull it off, hackers need a booby-trapped web page that triggers the attack without the visitor noticing. Google rated it high severity and, as usual, is sharing few details until most people have updated.

The update also closes five other high-severity bugs, in the WebGL file system, the rendering engine, the graphics processor and V8, the engine that runs JavaScript. Two medium-severity graphics bugs were fixed too.

How many Chrome zero-days were there in 2026?

Eight so far. February brought one in font handling. March had two, in Skia (the graphics library) and V8. April saw a WebGPU flaw, June another in V8, and September two more in V8 within days of each other. That already matches last year's total of exploited flaws.

How to update Chrome

You need version 157.0.8103.50 or .51 on Windows and macOS, or 157.0.8103.50 on Linux. Click the three dots at the top right, go to Help, then About Google Chrome. The browser downloads the latest version by itself. Then click Relaunch to apply the fixes.

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Tags:google chromezero-daysecurity updatevulnerabilityxmlbrowser

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