Microsoft Vulnerability Research discovers two Chrome flaws

Neowin

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Microsoft's Vulnerability Research program, started on Tuesday, April 19th, has begun its work with two exploits in Google's Chrome internet browser. The two bugs Microsoft discovered have since been reportedly fixed. According to Google, the bugs disclose by Microsoft are 'quite old', and were fixed by the end of last year. The specific issues Microsoft drew attention to were code-named MSVR11-001 and MSVR11-002. As Network World reports, these bugs are known for the following reasons:

MSVR11-001 could allow remote code to be executed through the sandboxing of Chrome. Microsoft have since stated the following:

"A sandboxed remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that Google Chrome attempts to reference memory that has been freed. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability to cause the browser to become unresponsive and/or exit unexpectedly, allowing an attacker to run arbitrary code within the Google Chrome Sandbox. The Google Chrome Sandbox is read and write isolated from the local file system which limits an attacker."

MSVR11-002 is an issue with older versions of Google Chrome, and older versions of Opera. Specifically, the two browsers that marked the end of the issue were Chrome 8.0.552.210, and Opera 10.62. This bug relates to the manner in which the two browsers handle HTML5; they deal with the code in a manner that could 'allow information disclosure'. An official Microsoft statement said the following:

"Specifically, as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) describes in the HTML5 specification for security with canvas elements, information leakage can occur if scripts from one origin can access information from another origin."

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Not to to sound grumpy or anything, but why publish this if these issues were already fixed? Chrome is very secure, but not invulnerable; that's a given with pretty much any software. How is this any different than publishing an article about 2 bugs Microsoft found in Firefox, which have been fixed a year ago, for example? In that example, and in this case, I just don't see the... how should I put it? Well, relevance.
 
Are they aware this will eventually backfire at them?

Nonetheless, fair competition is always welcome and will benefit everyone in the end.
 
I think the point is that both exploits were reported as fixed but MVR is saying they are working with the exploits *now*, not that they are messing with exploits from old builds (as doing so is more or less pointless since chrome auto-updates all the time). But there is a bit to be desired regarding the explaination of what they're actually saying.
 
If if serves no other purpose, it lets people know that flaws were actually found. M$ is good about the open remediation of its vulnerabilities. Other business models may vary, such as fixing flaws, and not telling users they were ever there.
 
The fact that Microsoft is willing to spend time looking into exploits on a competitors browser, while still having one of the most easily exploitable browsers of their own, is pretty sad.
 
@Captain
Exactly, you said 'others' but I always suspect Google 'silently' patches up its baby, and tell us 'it has released a new version' ...... how convenient !
 
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