This issue affects several programs
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered a huge security gap that affects practically all browsers on the market and is used by hackers.
This weakness it allows attackers to run malicious code on victims’ computers, potentially even taking complete control of them.
NIST points out that the security gap is extremely serious, affecting beyond browsers and many other programs. For example, various applications built with the Electron framework are affected, with the hugely popular Signal having already released the necessary patch. Likewise, applications such as Gimp, LibreOffice and Telegram are affected, as well as many Android and cross-platform applications built with the Flutter framework.
The issue is related to the code that manages the rendering of WebP images, which in recent years have begun to massively replace JPG and PNG images on the Internet, since their size is significantly smaller, maintaining corresponding levels of quality.
Be that as it may, since browsers are usually faced with this type of files, it is recommended to make the necessary update as soon as possible.
The versions that are now secure and include the necessary fix are the following:
Google Chrome 116.0.5846.187 (Mac / Linux)
Google Chrome 116.0.5845.187/.188 (Windows)
Firefox 117.0.1, Firefox ESR 102.15.1, Firefox ESR 115.2.1, Thunderbird 102.15.1, Thunderbird 115.2.2
Microsoft Edge 116.0.1938.81
Apple already released updates for its own programs earlier this week.
