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New Chrome Browser Vulnerability Puts Users’ Data at Risk
A significant zero-day security flaw, now designated CVE-2025-4664, has been discovered in Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, potentially threatening billions of users worldwide across both Windows and Linux platforms. Cybersecurity researchers at Wazuh have sounded the alarm, highlighting the vulnerability’s capacity to allow attackers to steal sensitive user data—such as OAuth tokens and session identifiers—without any need for user interaction.
Understanding the CVE-2025-4664 Chrome Exploit
The newly detected security issue is rooted in the Loader component of Chrome and Chromium browsers. It exploits the way these browsers handle the Link HTTP header for managing sub-resource requests like images and scripts. Unlike other mainstream browsers, Chrome continues to honor the referrer-policy directive on sub-resources, which opens the door for malicious websites to introduce overly permissive policies (e.g., unsafe-url). As a result, sensitive data contained within URLs can be exposed to unauthorized third-party domains.
This exploit circumvents many of the standard browser security mechanisms and challenges foundational assumptions around web security, putting user privacy and enterprise data at risk.
What Makes Chrome Vulnerable? Product Features & Comparisons
While Chrome’s extensive customization provides developers with deep control over resource loading and security settings, this same flexibility sometimes leads to unique vulnerabilities not found in browsers like Firefox or Safari. In this case, Chrome’s strict adherence to referrer-policy on sub-resources—meant to safeguard privacy—has inadvertently created an avenue for data leaks.
Security Tools: Detection and Mitigation with Wazuh
Wazuh’s Vulnerability Detection module, enhanced with Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) integration, is highly effective for organizations seeking to monitor and mitigate this type of browser exploit. In controlled testing environments using Wazuh OVA 4.12.0, security teams were able to scan and identify endpoints running vulnerable versions of Chrome and Chromium on both Windows 11 and Debian 11 systems. Wazuh’s dashboard makes threat hunting efficient—adding the CVE-2025-4664 identifier to queries enables rapid detection and real-time updates on vulnerability status, switching from “Active” to “Solved” when remediation steps are completed.
Immediate Actions and Practical Use Cases
Google has acted swiftly, rolling out emergency patches for Chrome on Windows and Gentoo Linux. All users on these systems are urged to update their browsers without delay. However, for Chromium browsers on Debian 11, all versions up to 120.0.6099.224 remain vulnerable, with no official patch released at this time. It is strongly recommended to stop using the browser or uninstall it until a fixed version becomes available.
Best Practices: How to Stay Secure Against Zero-Day Attacks
This incident underscores why relying solely on browser updates isn’t enough to stay safe. A comprehensive cybersecurity posture demands deploying endpoint protection platforms, alongside advanced malware detection and antivirus solutions. These systems provide layered security, allowing for real-time monitoring, fast detection, and rapid isolation of exploit attempts—which is critical in a dynamic threat landscape where new vulnerabilities emerge regularly.
Market Relevance & Strategic Recommendations
For technology-driven enterprises and privacy-conscious users, the latest Chrome and Chromium vulnerability highlights the need to continuously reassess browser security and endpoint defenses. As one of the most widely-used browsers globally, Chrome’s security incidents are particularly influential in shaping cybersecurity strategies across corporations and individuals alike. Implementing multi-tiered protection not only guards against browser-specific exploits but also bolsters resilience against evolving cyber threats at large.
Stay updated, remain vigilant, and adopt robust security solutions to mitigate today’s—and tomorrow’s—browser vulnerabilities.
Source: techradar
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