Google Patches 11 Flaws In Chrome Browser Update

The Google Chrome 5.0.375.127 update fixes two critical bugs in Chrome and includes a workaround for a Windows kernel bug, said Jason Kersey, a member of the Google Chrome team, in a blog post. The Google Chrome 5.0.375.127 update also fixes seven bugs rated as "high", including six that result in memory corruption.

Google credited security researcher Marc Schoenefeld with the Windows kernel find and awarded him $1,337 as part of its bounty program. But researcher Sergey Glazunov was the big winner in this update, garnering a total of $4,674 for two critical vulnerabilities and one high-risk vulnerability.

In a bulletin issued Friday, Danish security research firm Secunia gave the Chrome vulnerabilities a rating of "highly critical," second-highest on its five-level scale. One of the vulnerabilities "has an unknown impact," while the others could be exploited in spoofing attacks to compromise users' PCs, according to Secunia.

As Chrome gains market share, it's also gaining attention from miscreants, and that's going to put increasing pressure on Google to keep it patched and safe. Chrome's market share has grown from about 3 percent last September to around 7 percent now, according to the most recent figures from Net Applications.

Internet Explorer has been declining over the past year, but Microsoft is readying the IE9 beta and is boasting about its beefier performance and security. Google has also been quite vocal about Microsoft's security stance in recent months, so you'd have to think the software giant is watching and waiting for its rival to slip up.