We all use web browsers most days on our phones, tablets and laptops, so we generally trust them to be secure with our data when we use them, no matter the service. It's always a wake up call when we're reminded that sometimes even the most mainstream, most used tech products are at risk, and that's exactly what's happened this week with Google Chrome.

Google revealed in a security advisory on December 10 that it had pushed a free update out to Chrome users globally to fix a high risk zero-day vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild.

To break that down, a 'zero-day' bug is named so because when researchers discover it and realise hackers are already aware of it and exploiting it to the unaware public, there are zero days to fix it. If you see 'zero-day' attached to a Chrome vulnerability, that's bad!

As noted by Bleeping Computer, this latest zero-day bug is the eighth of its kind to be fixed in 2025. This one is snappily referred to by Google as 466192044.

"Google is aware that an exploit for 466192044 exists in the wild," Google confirmed in its advisory.

"We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel."

Google is now pushing out the free fix to Windows (143.0.7499.109), macOS (143.0.7499.110), and Linux users (143.0.7499.109). If you have automatic updates for Chrome enabled, this version may already be with you.

If you're not sure, you can open Chrome and head to the settings to check if you have any software updates to install, though Google says this update "will roll out over the coming days/weeks".

When I checked my Mac version of Chrome, I was not yet updated to this version.

Even though it is very unlikely that you will be targeted by hackers if you are running an older version of Chrome, you will always run the risk of cyber criminals being able to access your apps and data.

Though Google does its best to fix flaws and when they are found, you're only protected and up to date if you have auto-updates turned on and are always running the most recent Chrome version.

Google did not release full details of the Chrome bug in its advisory. This is so any hackers out there can't easily learn how to target people who are running older versions of the browser. Such vulnerabilities usually allow bad actors to access your computer, browser or online accounts without your permission, though in this instance it's impossible to confirm what the flaw was - but with that zero-day label tells us all we need to know.