The Chrome browser differs from Chromium in its use of the Google logos
Google unveiled recently launched the new version of its web browser Chrome 120 along with which the new stable version of the Chromium project, which serves as the basis for Chrome, is also available.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, The new version of Chrome 120 eliminates 10 vulnerabilities, of which the most serious flaw is CVE-2023-6508, a high-severity use-after-free issue in Media Stream, followed by CVE-2023-6509, a high-severity use-after-free flaw affecting the Chrome side panel search component.
It also resolves two low-severity inappropriate implementation flaws in AutoComplete and the web browser UI. As part of the cash reward program for discovering vulnerabilities, Google paid 13 prizes worth $15.000.
Main new features in Chrome 120
In this new version of Chrome 120 that is presented, the functionality of the interface “Security Check” has been significantly improved, now providing a detailed summary of potential security issues. These issues include the use of compromised passwords, the status of checking for malicious sites (Safe Browsing), the presence of uninstalled updates, and the identification of malicious plugins. The updated version Features a proactive mode that performs regular security checks of the browser and notifies the user if problems are detected. Additionally, new options have been introduced in the settings to manage actions in proactive mode.
Another improvement What this new version of Chrome 120 receives is in the password manager, which now has the ability to share individual passwords with members of a Google family group, which must be configured through a Google account. It is worth mentioning that only one password can be shared at a time, after which the user sharing the password cannot update or revoke the shared password.
In addition to this, it stands out the redesign of the Chrome Web Store, The new design is intended to make it easier to find and manage plugins, added new plugin categories and the option to return the previous layout to the “⋮” menu has been added.
It is also highlighted that con Chrome 120, Google is experimenting with the option to pin different sidebars to the top right of the toolbar. This gives you easy access to frequently used sidebars without having to fiddle with the sidebar launcher.
On the tabs side, Chrome has made managing many tabs much easier and Chrome 120 is no exception, as it improves existing experiments by adding a new "Organize Tabs" button which should allow you to reorganize thematically relevant tabs. . It seems like the feature is still in an early stage and could take some time to fully launch though.
Moreover, An experiment has been implemented in Chrome 120 to disable support for third-party cookies configured when accessing sites other than the domain of the current page. These cookies are used to track users' movements between sites in advertising network code, social media widgets and web analytics systems. In January 2024, third-party cookies will be disabled for 1% of browser users. The changes are being promoted through the Privacy Sandbox initiative, which aims to achieve a compromise between users' need to maintain privacy and the desire of advertising networks and sites to track visitor preferences.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Removing support for Theora, at this early stage Theora is disabled for 1% of users, but by January 16 it is planned to be disabled for all users.
- Implemented an adaptive toolbar that changes according to the size of the window.
- Interaction with printers has been moved to a separate service process, which has improved browser stability and the responsiveness of the page preview interface before printing.
- Added a "scripting" media query to CSS that can be used to determine whether scripts, such as JavaScript, can be executed on the current page.
- The check() method has been added to the FontFaceSet API, which allows you to check if text can be displayed with the selected fonts without using fonts in FontFaceSet that have not yet been loaded.
- The WebGPU API has added the ability to use 16-bit floating point f16 in shaders.
- In the Media Capabilities API, the hdrMetadataType, colorGamut, and transferFunction fields were added to the decodingInfo() method to determine HDR support.
- The MediaStreamTrack API has added the ability to obtain information about received and discarded video frame counters.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details of this new release in the following link.
How to install Google Chrome 120 on Linux?
If you are interested in being able to install this new version of this web browser and you still do not have it installed, You can visit the following publication where we teach you how to install it on some Linux distributions.