Google has presented the launch of the Chrome 91 web browser in which the ability to stop JavaScript execution in a minimized tab group has been implemented. In the new version, to reduce the load on the CPU and save energy, the activity pause is implemented in the minimized tabs. The only exception is for tabs that play sound, use Web Locks or IndexedDB API, connect to a USB device, capture video, sound, or window content.
We can also find that support for a brute force key agreement method on quantum computers is included. Quantum computers are dramatically faster at solving the problem of decomposing a natural number into prime factors, which is the basis of modern asymmetric encryption algorithms and cannot be solved effectively in classical processors.
For use in TLSv1.3, the CECPQ2 plugin is provided (Combined Elliptic-Curve and Post-Quantum 2), which combines the classic X25519 key exchange mechanism with the HRSS scheme based on the NTRU Prime algorithm, developed for post-quantum cryptosystems.
Support for the TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols has been completely discontinued, which has been deprecated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The ability to return TLS 1.0 / 1.1 has been removed by changing the SSLVersionMin policy.
In compilations for Linux, the use of the "DNS over HTTPS" mode is enabled (DoH, DNS over HTTPS), which was previously offered to Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, and Android users. DNS-over-HTTPS will be turned on automatically for users whose settings are configured with DNS providers that support this technology (for DNS-over-HTTPS, the same provider is used that was used for DNS).
Port 10080 has been added to the number of forbidden network ports, which is used in Amanda and VMWare vCenter backup. Previously, ports 69, 137, 161, 554, 1719, 1720, 1723, 5060, 5061, and 6566 were blocked. For the blacklisted ports, the sending of HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP requests is blocked to protect against NAT slip attacks.
In enhanced safe browsing mode, which triggers additional checks to protect against phishing, malicious activity, and other threats on the Web, implements the ability to submit downloaded files for verification by Google. Plus, improved safe browsing implements accounting of tokens associated with a Google account when phishing attempts are detected, as well as sending referral header values to Google's servers to verify forwarding from a malicious site.
Finally for the Android version, it is mentioned that the design of the elements of the web form has been improved, which has been optimized for use on touch screens and systems for people with disabilities (for desktop systems, the design has been redone in Chrome 83).
The purpose of the revision was to unify the design of the elements of the form and eliminate the inconsistency of the styles; Previously, some elements of the form were designed according to the interface elements of operating systems, and others according to the most popular styles. Because of this, the different elements were suitable for touchscreens and systems for people with disabilities in different ways.
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