Millions of Chrome users have lost access to the passwords they saved in Google’s browser due to a major bug in the manager. A fix has been rolled out to automatically restore them.
Password managers are very practical tools that have become widely used by the general public, whether on computers or smartphones. These utilities greatly improve our security in the digital space, allowing us to manage a large number of passwords, both strong and unique, for each of the many online services that we all use every day. However, like any software, password managers are not exempt from security flaws and bugs.
This is what happened to the Chrome manager, which stores passwords with the Google account they are associated with, to enter them automatically whenever you need to log in to a particular account (email, bank, administration, online store, etc.). From July 24 to 25, millions of users were unable to access their saved passwords or save new identifiers in the manager because of a bug. Fortunately, a fix has been deployed. And contrary to what some have written on the Web, the passwords saved in Chrome have not been permanently deleted: they were just inaccessible during the incident. They were automatically restored with the fix deployed by Google.
Chrome Password Manager: 15 Million Users Affected
The incident, which took place between July 24 and 25, reportedly lasted “only” about 18 hours, but it still affected a significant number of users. Indeed, Google explains in his dashboard that of the 25% of Windows users who had the Chrome 127 update deployed – which contained the bug – only 2% experienced the problem. But on a Google scale – Chrome is the most widely used web browser in the world – that still represents nearly 15 million people, according to estimates from Forbes.
The Mountain View firm has fortunately released a fix in a new update of its browser and has publicly apologized. It is therefore advisable to restart Chrome or, as a precaution, to perform a manual update to the latest version. To do this, go to the settings and click on “About Google Chrome”. The browser will then automatically search for and install the latest updates. All you have to do is restart it.
This incident highlights the potential risks associated with the exclusive use of password managers. Although convenient, putting all your credentials in the same tool can lead to problems. We all remember the successive hacks of LastPass or the technical flaw allowing credentials to be stolen in the main password managers running on Android devices (see our article). Therefore, it is better to diversify your storage methods or keep local backups of your essential credentials.