The world’s favorite web browser may be far more sinister than we think. According to new research courtesy of Atlas VPN, Google’s resident browser has had 303 vulnerabilities discovered just this year. The company put Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers to the test and found that Chrome was in the lead in terms of vulnerabilities.
The report that Atlas VPN compiled cites data gleaned from VulDB, a vulnerability database. The report found that Google Chrome was the worst offender where vulnerabilities are concerned, with a cumulative vulnerability count of 3,159. Unfortunately, Google Chrome claimed another win within the scope of the report by being the only one among the world’s most commonly used browsers to have new vulnerabilities discovered as recently as October 2022.
The report also found that Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge are prime offenders as well, with 117 and 103 vulnerabilities discovered this year, respectively.
One of the best-performing browsers is surprisingly Opera, which has seen no vulnerabilities documented this year. Although, the browser has experienced 344 flaws in total.
According to the report, Apple’s Safari browser experienced ‘some of the lowest vulnerability numbers in years.’ The report explains that Safari, the world’s second favorite browser, experienced 26 documented vulnerabilities during the first nine months of 2022. The report also notes that the browser has had ‘just’ 1,139 flaws identified.
Even though the report doesn’t mention this as a definitive reason for the vulnerabilities and flaws identified, it does point out that the biggest offenders are all built on the Chromium architecture. This means that the Chromium system itself might be at fault for the vulnerabilities in the browsers analyzed.
This next piece isn’t going to come as a surprise after this article, but it isn’t going to make you feel any better either. Chrome’s spellchecker has been found to be exposing your passwords. Is it potentially time to switch browsers?
