You Need to Update iOS, Android, and Chrome Right Now

To find the update, you’ll need to check your device settings. Devices that have received the Android April update so far include Google’s Pixel devices and some third-party Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, A51, A52 5G, A53 5G, A71, S10 series, S20 series, Note20 series, Z Flip 5G, Z Flip3, Z Fold, Z Fold2, and the Z Fold3, as well as the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro.

Google Chrome Emergency Updates

As the world’s biggest browser with over 3 billion users, it’s no surprise attackers are targeting Google Chrome. Browser-based attacks are particularly worrying because they can potentially be chained together with other vulnerabilities and used to take over your device.

It has been a particularly busy month for the team behind Google’s Chrome browser, which has seen several security updates within weeks of each other. The latest, pushed out in mid-April, fixes two issues including a high-severity zero-day vulnerability, CVE-2022-1364, which is already being used by attackers.

The technical details aren’t currently available, but the timing of the fix—just a day after it was reported—indicates it’s pretty serious. If you use Chrome, your browser should now be on version 100.0.4896.127 to include the fix. You’ll need to restart Chrome after the update has installed to ensure it activates.

The Chrome issue also impacts other Chromium-based browsers, including Brave, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi, so if you use one of those, make sure you apply the patch.

But that’s not all. On April 27, Google announced another Chrome update, fixing 30 security vulnerabilities. None of these have been exploited yet, the company says, but seven are rated as being a high risk. The update takes the browser to version 101.0.4951.41.

Oracle’s April 2022 Critical Patch Update

In mid-April, Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update, including a whopping 520 security fixes. Some of the issues fixed in the update are serious—300 of them can be exploited remotely without authentication, and 75 security issues are rated as critical severity. Some of the Oracle patches address CVE-2022-22965, aka Spring4Shell, a remote code execution (RCE) flaw in the spring framework.

Microsoft’s Busy April Patch Tuesday

Microsoft had a major Patch Tuesday in April, issuing fixes for over 100 vulnerabilities, including 10 critical RCE flaws. One of the most important, CVE-2022-24521, is already being exploited by attackers, according to the company.

Reported by the NSA and researchers at CrowdStrike, the issue in the Windows Common Log File system driver doesn’t require human interaction to be exploited and can be used to obtain administrative privileges on a logged-in system. Other notable fixes include CVE-2022-26904—a publicly known issue—and CVE-2022-26815, a severe DNS Server flaw.

Mozilla Thunderbird 91.8.0 Fix

On April 5, Mozilla released a patch to fix security issues in its Thunderbird email client as well as its Firefox browser. The details are scant, but Thunderbird 91.8 fixes four vulnerabilities rated as having a high impact, some of which could be exploited to run arbitrary code.

Firefox ESR 91.8 and Firefox 99 also fix multiple security issues.

WordPress Plugin Elementor Version 3.6.3

The Elementor website builder plug-in for WordPress has received a big security fix in April for a critical-rated vulnerability that could allow attackers to perform remote code execution and effectively take over a website.

Found by researchers at Plugin Vulnerabilities, the flaw was introduced in the plug-in in version 3.6.0, released on March 22. “We would recommend not using this plugin until it has had a thorough security review and all issues are addressed,” the researchers said.

Although the attacker must be authenticated to exploit the issue, it’s still pretty serious because anyone logged into an affected website can exploit it. The update for Elementor’s 5 million users, version 3.6.3, should be applied as soon as possible.

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