Google on Thursday released security updates for its Chrome web browser to address 21 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day flaw that it said has been exploited in the wild.
The high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2026-5281 (CVSS score: N/A), concerns a use-after-free bug in Dawn, an open-source and cross-platform implementation of the WebGPU standard.
“Use-after-free in Dawn in Google Chrome prior to 146.0.7680.178 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to execute arbitrary code via a crafted HTML page,” according to a description of the flaw in the NIST’s National Vulnerability Database (NVD).
As is customary for these alerts, Google did not provide any further details on how the shortcoming is being exploited and who may be behind the effort. This is typically done so as to ensure that a majority of users are updated with a fix and prevent other actors from joining the exploitation bandwagon.
“Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2026-5281 exists in the wild,” the company acknowledged.
The development arrives merely after Google shipped fixes for two high-severity flaws (CVE-2026-3909 and CVE-2026-3910) that were exploited as zero-days. In February, the tech giant also addressed an actively exploited use-after-free bug in Chrome’s CSS component (CVE-2026-2441). In total, Google has patched a total of four actively weaponized Chrome zero-days since the start of the year.
For optimal protection, users are advised to update their Chrome browser to versions 146.0.7680.177/178 for Windows and Apple macOS, and 146.0.7680.177 for Linux. To make sure the latest updates are installed, users can navigate to More > Help > About Google Chrome and select Relaunch.
Users of other Chromium-based browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi, are also advised to apply the fixes as and when they become available.
Update
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), on April 1, 2026, added CVE-2026-5281 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, requiring Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to apply the necessary fixes by April 15, 2026.
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