Google has published the release of the Chrome 132 web browser. At the same time, a stable release of the free Chromium project, which is the basis of Chrome, is available. The Chrome browser differs from Chromium in the use of Google logos, the presence of a system for sending notifications in the event of a crash, modules for playing copy-protected video content (DRM), an automatic update installation system, constant inclusion of Sandbox isolation, supply of keys to the Google API and transmission of RLZ parameters during search. For those who need more time to update, the Extended Stable branch is separately supported, supported for 8 weeks. The next release of Chrome 133 is scheduled for February 4.
Key changes in Chrome 132:
- Added heuristics that automatically enables the "HTTPS-First" function, redirecting HTTP requests to HTTPS, for users who usually use HTTPS in their practice. If the user does not agree with the inclusion of "HTTPS-First", he can forcibly disable this mode in the settings. With "HTTPS-First" active, work with sites that do not support HTTPS is performed by falling back to HTTP if after redirection the request cannot be completed via HTTPS or problems with certificates arise. If the HTTPS option is unavailable, a special warning is displayed before opening the site via HTTP.
- The search capabilities using the Google Lens service, which is called via the context menu, have been expanded. In addition to searching by images and selected text, support has been added for asking questions in natural language related to the content of web pages and PDF documents. To ask a question, call the Google Lens search interface via the menu and enter the question at the top of the sidebar that appears. The number of languages available in the translation overlay function has been expanded (the translated text is shown on top of the original text in the image).
- For platform Windows Sandboxing support for the process that supports network services has been added. The "—enable-features=NetworkServiceSandbox" option has been added to enable sandboxing. You can check the sandbox modes on the "chrome://sandbox/" page.
- The settings now include the ability to selectively download passwords and addresses previously saved on the local system to cloud storage linked to a Google account.
- In desktop builds, instead of setting up synchronization between devices using a separate account, the ability to link the user's browsers to a Google account used in services such as Gmail and Google Docs is provided. For example, when logging into the Gmail website, you will now be prompted to log in with this account in Chrome to save and synchronize open tabs, settings, history, bookmarks, passwords, addresses, add-ons, themes, and PWA applications.
- Added the setting "chrome://flags/#enable-user-link-capturing-pwa", when activated, following links associated with an installed Web application (PWA) leads to the opening of a regular site and the appearance in the address bar of an indicator for switching to using the web application. Previously, opening such links immediately led to a transition to the web application, without the ability to work with the page as with a regular site.
- For element The "beforetoggle" and "toggle" (ToggleEvent) events have been implemented, allowing you to determine the moments of opening and closing a dialog, and call your handlers at the stage before the dialog is shown/closed or when the dialog is already shown or closed. When calling the showModal or show method, the ToggleEvent events are generated with the "open" value in the newState parameter, and when closing the dialog with the "closed" value.
- An InvalidStateError exception is now thrown when calling the showPopover() and showModal() methods on elements with the "popover" attribute or "dialog" elements that are in an inactive document. Previously, such a call was silently ignored.
- In addition to the ability to capture video and an arbitrary area in a tab, the Element Capture API has been added to capture individual HTML elements. This can be useful in situations where you need to capture elements that overlap each other. For example, in a video conferencing web application that allows embedding other web applications via an iframe, the new API may be needed to capture the contents of the iframe as a video and transmit it to other participants.
- Added getAllScreensMedia() method to capture the contents of all screens connected to the device.
- In version for Android WebView-based components are now allowed to use the File System Access API, which allows web applications to read and write data directly to files and directories on the user's device. Previously, this API was only available in desktop builds. File selection dialogs can be invoked using the showOpenFilePicker() and showSaveFilePicker() methods.
- The CSS property "a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/CSS/writing-mode">writing-mode", which allows you to customize the positioning of text in forms, now supports the sideways-rl and sideways-lr keywords, which are useful for organizing the vertical output of traditional text that does not use hieroglyphs.
- The CSS properties "inset" and "margin" now allow the anchor-size() value.
- The ability to activate scroll regions when navigating using the keyboard has been restored, allowing users without a mouse to first tab to the desired region and then scroll through its contents using the cursor control arrows. This was previously disabled due to regressions in accessibility features that have been fixed in this release.
- Added Request.bytes() and Response.bytes() methods that return a promise for reading using a Uint8Array object.
- Ensured that the Strict-Transport-Security HTTP header is ignored in responses with Server, hosted on the local system and accepting requests via localhost.
- The WebGPU API now supports mixing textures with 32-bit floating-point color representation (r32float, rg32float, and rgba32float). The adapterInfo attribute has been added to the GPUDevice object.
- Expanded capabilities of tools for web developers. Added support for using the Gemini AI assistant to simplify debugging and clarifying issues related to network requests, source files and performance tracing. Implemented saving of chat history with the AI assistant.
The Sensors panel now simulates different CPU load intensities (Nominal, Fair, Serious, Critical). The panel for assessing memory consumption now supports grouping JavaScript objects by name. The design of the configurator has been changed. The Computed tab now updates computed values in real time (useful for tracking value changes during animation). The Application > Storage section now allows you to inspect browser add-on storage.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, the new version eliminates 16 vulnerabilities. Many of the vulnerabilities were identified as a result of automated testing with the AddressSanitizer, MemorySanitizer, Control Flow Integrity, LibFuzzer and AFL tools. Five issues were assigned a high severity level. No critical issues were identified that could bypass all levels of browser protection and execute code in the system outside the sandbox environment. As part of the program for paying cash rewards for detecting vulnerabilities for the current release, Google has paid out 13 rewards totaling $37 (two rewards of $7000 and $5000, one reward of $3000, three rewards of $2000 and four rewards of $1000). The amount of one reward has not yet been determined.
Source: opennet.ru
