Chrome 91 includes 32 security fixes — why you need to patch now

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Google Chrome version 91, specifically 91.0.4472.77, has been released and it contains a couple of useful new features as well as fixing 32 security holes. You'll want to update as soon as possible.

The new version was pushed out late yesterday (May 25). So far, Chrome's siblings Brave, Edge, Opera and Vivaldi have not incorporated the update, but at least a couple likely will by the end of the day today.

How to update Chrome

To update Chrome on Windows or Mac, it's usually enough to just close the browser and relaunch it. To make sure, you can click the three vertical dots at the top right corner of the browser window, then scroll down, highlight Help and click on "About Google Chrome" in the fly-out menu that appears.

Nearly three dozen security fixes

Of the flaws fixed with this version of Chrome, at least eight are rated as "high" severity on the official Chrome blog. This implies that these flaws could probably be exploited by a malicious website or other internet-based attack.

None of the flaws are flagged as "zero-day" issues — i.e., that an attacker had exploited the flaws before Google had a chance to fix them. That's a welcome respite from a cascade of recent zero-days that saw Google rushing out patches to Chrome four times over the course of two weeks in April.

New features: Gravity sensor, copy-and-paste files

Most of the other changes to Chrome are subtle and won't be noticeable to most users. A couple that might be include a new gravity sensor for laptops that have the appropriate hardware and the ability to copy and paste files from their operating system's file manager directly into a Gmail message.

Here's a rundown of the most recent Chrome desktop updates.

May 25: 91.0.4472.77
May 10: 90.0.4430.212
April 26: 90.0.4430.93
April 20: 90.0.4430.85
April 14: 90.0.4430.72
April 13: 89.0.4389.128
March 30: 89.0.4389.114
March 12: 89.0.4389.90
March 5: 89.0.4389.82
March 2: 89.0.4389.72

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Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random TV news spots and even moderated a panel discussion at the CEDIA home-technology conference. You can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.