Google's biggest oopsie made 15 million Windows users lose Chrome passwords
A little too familiar with recent CrowdStrike's outage?
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Key notes
- Google apologized for a bug causing passwords to disappear for millions of Chrome users on Windows.
- The issue, affecting the M127 Chrome version, lasted 18 hours and has been fixed with a browser restart.
- Google also fixed a separate vulnerability in Google Workspace that allowed account creation bypassing email verification.
Google has apologized after a bug caused passwords to disappear for millions of Windows users of the Chrome web browser.
The problem started on July 24 and lasted for 18 hours, making saved passwords invisible and preventing new ones from being saved. A temporary fix was given, but now users just need to restart their browser for the full fix.
“Impacted users were unable to find passwords in Chrome’s password manager. Users can save passwords, however it was not visible to them. The impact was limited to the M127 version of Chrome Browser on the Windows platform,” Google explains in the mini incident report.
The Mountain View tech giant also describes that the issue stems from “a change in product behavior without proper feature guard.” Forbes estimates the number affected to be in the ballpark of 15 million.
Another recent issue allowed bad actors to bypass email verification in Google Workspace, letting them create fake accounts.
A report by Kerbs on Security details that this vulnerability lets attackers create malicious accounts and use them to impersonate domain holders at third-party services utilizing Google’s “Sign in with Google” feature. The flaw, which was exploited starting in late June, involved manipulating the account setup process to bypass domain verification.
Both problems have been fixed ever since, and Google has expressed regret for the inconvenience.
Microsoft, Google’s competitor, also faced scrutiny over an IT issue. A faulty update from CrowdStrike’s software has sent 8.5 million Windows PCs into the blue screen of death. To make things worse, these PCs run critical businesses like hospitals, airlines, and even stores and TV stations.
