Govt issues high-severity alert for Google Chrome, asks users to update browsers urgently

India’s cyber security watchdog Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on Monday issued a high-severity alert for a critical vulnerability in Google Chrome for desktop, warning that the flaw could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems.

In its vulnerability note, CERT-In said the issue impacts Chrome versions prior to 145.0.7632.75/76 on Windows and macOS, and versions earlier than 144.0.7559.75 on Linux.

The vulnerability exists due to a “use-after-free” condition in Chrome’s CSS rendering component.

According to the advisory, a remote attacker could exploit the vulnerability by luring users to a specially crafted HTML webpage, potentially leading to system compromise and service disruptions.

“The severity rating of this vulnerability is high, with a significant risk of system compromise,”

CERT-In rated the severity of the vulnerability as ‘high’, indicating that there is a high risk of system compromise and service disruptions.

It urged all users and organisations to immediately apply vendor-recommended updates.

Last week, Google released a stable channel update for desktop Chrome, rolling out patched versions for Windows, macOS, and Linux over the coming days and weeks.

Google confirmed that the update addresses CVE-2026-2441, a high-risk security bug involving a use-after-free issue in CSS, reported by a security researcher on February 11.

The company also acknowledged that an exploit for the vulnerability exists in the wild.

CERT-In has advised users to update their browsers immediately to the latest versions to mitigate the risk.