Google patches worrying Chrome zero-day flaw being exploited in the wild - here's how to stay safe

• Google patches Chrome zero-day CVE-2025-13223 in V8 engine
• Bug enabled arbitrary code execution, likely exploited by state-sponsored threat actors
• Users should update Chrome to version 142.0.7444.175/.176 across platforms

Google has patched a worrying security flaw in its Chrome browser that was being abused in the wild as a zero-day.

In a new security advisory, Google said it fixed a type confusion vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine which leads to arbitrary code execution. V8 is the browser’s JavaScript and WebAssembly engine - essentially the “brain” that reads, compiles, and executes JavaScript and WASM code in web pages.

The vulnerability is now tracked as CVE-2025-13223 and has a severity score of 8.8/10 (high). "Type Confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 142.0.7444.175 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page," the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) said in its explainer.

Fixing the problem

As reported by The Hacker News, the bug was first discovered by a security researcher from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), who did not detail the identities of both attackers, and the victims.

However, we know from previous reports that Google’s TAG team usually monitors state-sponsored threat actors, so it’s safe to assume that this bug was being leveraged by actors such as North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran. Both Lazarus Group (North Korea) and APT29 (Russia) have been observed abusing Chrome’s flaws in the past.

This is the third type confusion bug found in V8 this year, The Hacker News added, after CVE-2025-6554 and CVE-2025-10585.

Since by default, Google updates automatically next time it’s launched, users are most likely not required to do anything. However, in case automatic updates are turned off, make sure to bring the browser to versions 142.0.7444.175/.176 for Windows, 142.0.7444.176 for Apple macOS, and 142.0.7444.175 for Linux.

To check the version of Chrome you’re running, navigate to More > Help > About Google Chrome and select Relaunch.

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