The Google developers who are in charge of the "Chrome" web browser recently announced the launch of the new version of the browser, reaching the new version "Chrome 88" in which some important changes have been made, as well as the solution of various errors.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, the new version removes 36 vulnerabilities, of which (CVE-2021-21117, Limit Enforcement Issues in Cryptohome) has been marked as critical, that is, it allows bypassing all levels of browser protection and executing code on the system outside of the sandbox environment.
As part of the Vulnerability Cash Bounty program for the current version, Google has paid out 26 prizes totaling $ 81000 (one of $ 30000, one of $ 16000, four of $ 5000, two of $ 2000, four of $ 1000, and two $ 500).
Main novelties of Chrome 88
In this new version of the browser Profile support for separate user accounts has been enabled for a small percentage of users. With this new function, the user can create a new Chrome profile and configure it to be activated when they connect to a specific account on Google, which will allow different users to share their bookmarks, settings and browsing history.
In addition, for another percentage of users, a new discreet verification interface has been offered, in which confirmation requests are displayed in the address bar in front of the domain, without distracting the user. Unlike previously used requests, the new interface does not require an instant fix and remains visible, providing the opportunity to confirm or block authorizations when necessary.
While for all users, the "Tab Throttling" mode is enabled, which was offered to a small percentage of users in the latest version. The browser now prioritizes active tabs and limits the CPU consumption of background tabs, reducing the amount of activated CPU. Based on the statistics collected, about 40% of the resource consumption when invoking JavaScript timers was in the background tabs.
Another change that stands out in Chrome 88 is the Inclusion of the third edition of the Chrome manifest, which is still optional. Developers have been given the option to create plugins using Manifest V3, but support for plugins using the second version of the manifest will be around for a while.
As well, we may find that the password manager has been modernized, as a button was added to verify the security of saved passwords with the ability to quickly change insecure passwords and also An interface was implemented to change the passwords of various accounts associated with a site.
Added experimental support for quick tab search, which was previously limited to the Chrome OS version. The user can see a list of all open tabs and quickly filter the desired tab, regardless of whether it is in the current window or another.
For Android, a new button with microphone is implemented for a certain percentage of users, which is displayed in the upper panel, next to the address bar. The button allows you to read the current page through the Google Assistant or translate it into another language.
Google account users can access the payment methods and passwords stored in their Google account without enabling Chrome Sync.
Finally, the removed support for FTP and the code related to the processing of Flash content is also mentioned.
How to update or install Google Chrome in Ubuntu and derivatives?
For those who are interested in being able to update to the new version of the browser on their systems, they can do so by following the instructions that we share below.
The first thing you should do is check if the update is already available, for this you have to go to chrome: // settings / help and the notification that there is an update will appear.
In case it is not so you must close your browser and you are going to open a terminal and type:
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade
You open your browser again and it must have already been updated or the update notification will appear.
In case you want to install the browser or choose to download the deb package to update, we must go to the web page of the browser to obtain the deb package and to be able to install it in our system with the help of the package manager or from the terminal. The link is this.
Once the package is obtained, we only have to install with the following command:
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb