Google Chrome 84 is out with security patches

[harlan4096]

Google released Chrome 84 Stable, the latest version of the stable branch of its browser Google Chrome, to the public on July 14, 2020. The new version is a security update first and foremost, but it introduces other changes and improvements to the browser as well.

Google plans to roll out the update over the coming days and weeks; users who use Chrome may want to upgrade early to fix the security vulnerabilities found in earlier versions of the browser.

On desktop, users may select Menu > Help > About Google Chrome to run a manual check for updates. The new version should be picked up and installed automatically at that point. Chrome needs to be restarted to complete the update to the new version.

Chrome 84

Google's announcement on the official Chrome Releases blog is, as usual, vague when it comes to changes in the browser.

The company notes that the update includes 38 security fixes, and that at least one of these patches a critical vulnerability in earlier versions of the browser (heap buffer overflow in background fetch, CVE-2020-6510).

Posts on Google's Developer site provide more information, albeit development related:

• Developers may add so-called App icon shortcuts to their PWA. On desktop, right-click on a shortcut to display the menu. Android users need to long-press the icon.
  
• New Web animations API capabilities.
  
• Content Indexing API graduated, ability to add URLs and metadata to offline content to improve discoverability.
  
• Wake Lock API is now available.
  
• Origin trial: Idle detection
  
• Origin trial: Web Assembly SIMD
  
• Origin trial: QuicTransport
  
• Developer Tools: new issues tab aims to "reduce the notification fatigue and clutter in Console" by highlighting warnings from the browser.
  
• Developer Tools: new Total Blocking Time information in the footer that reveals the time it took before the page became usable.
  
• Developer Tools: new Experience section in Performance helps detect layout shifts.
  
• Developer Tools: Hover over background-image to see a preview of that image.
  

Google resumes the gradual rollout of the SameSite cookie changes which Google started to roll out initially in Chrome 80 but suspended shortly thereafter.

SameSite limits access to cookies in the browser to first-party access by default. Web developers get controls to change that, but unless that is done explicitly, cookies cannot be accessed in third-party contexts anymore once the change lands.

Google Chrome 84 will be the first version of Chrome that silences notifications for sites that have abusive permission requests or make use of abusive notifications.

Google has deprecated TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in Chrome 84 and intents to remove support in a future version. Currently, both protocols are still supported.

Chrome 84 will display warnings to users if a download is not initiated from a secure context. Google Chrome displayed warnings in the Console since version 81 of Chrome. The company plans to block insecure downloads on the desktop in Chrome 88, and one release later on Android.

The next stable version of Google Chrome is scheduled for a release on August 25, 2020.

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