A significant error in Google Chrome's web browser caused around 15 million Windows users to lose access to their saved passwords for nearly 18 hours.
2% of Users Affected
According to Ziare this issue was attributed to a "change in the browser without adequate feature protection," according to a public apology from Google.
The problem, affecting Chrome users globally, particularly impacted those running version M127 of the browser on the Windows platform. During the outage, users were unable to access their saved passwords in Chrome’s password manager.
Given Chrome's extensive global user base of over 3 billion, Google estimated that about 2% of users were affected.
A Temporary Fix
As a temporary fix, Google instructed users to launch Chrome with a command line flag: --enable-features=SkipUndecryptablePasswords.
A permanent solution has now been implemented, requiring users to simply restart the Chrome browser to regain access to their passwords.
Google has apologized for the inconvenience and thanked users for their patience during the disruption.
In addition to the Chrome issue, cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs reported another problem affecting Google users. Some found that email verification was missing when creating new Google Workspace accounts. Anu Yamunan, Director of Abuse Protection and Safety at Google Workspace, confirmed that several thousand unverified domain accounts were created before the issue was resolved.
This problem was addressed within 72 hours of its reporting. Yamunan clarified that these domains were not previously associated with Workspace accounts or services.
