The Google Chrome browser has been hit by its first zero-day attack of 2023, and Google has begun rolling out an emergency update as of today to address the exploit.
Google detailed on its Chrome Release blog that it is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild. It has likely been circulating since the beginning of the year, according to Bleeping Computer.
The exploit was discovered and reported by Clement Lecigne of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG). The group is known for locating government-sponsored bad actors that intend to hack Google to get access to high-profile people, such as journalists and rival politicians, so they can infect their accounts and devices with spyware, the publication noted.
The CVE-2023-2033 vulnerability is considered high-severity and is detailed as a “confusion weakness in the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine.” However, Google has shared few other details about the attack at this time, particularly about how the CVE-2023-2033 vulnerability has been used in actual attacks. The name “zero-day” indicates that the vulnerability still exists in the wild, despite Google having addressed it with an update.
“Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix,” Google said. “We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third-party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.”
The update version 112.0.5615.121 addressing CVE-2023-2033 is currently available for Chrome users in the Stable Desktop channel and will roll out to all users over several days and weeks. The update is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. BleepingComputer noted it was able to access the update immediately by accessing Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome. The update will also hit Chrome browsers automatically when available after a restart.
In March 2022, a similar zero-day vulnerability called CVE-2022-1096 affected Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine specifically on Mac devices.
A major zero-day vulnerability that affected Windows programs in June 2022, called CVE-2022-30190, Follina, was traced to a Chinese TA413 hacking group and was aimed at the Tibetan diaspora, as well as U.S. and EU government agencies.
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