Google Chrome’s Password Problem

With the growing number of cyber-attacks on companies and individuals nowadays, one would think that our most commonly used online channels such as browsers that store our personal data would have a very tight level of security to help us feel more secure. Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly the case, especially if you’re using Google Chrome as your default browser. 

 

With the growing number of cyber-attacks on companies and individuals nowadays, one would think that our most commonly used online channels such as browsers that store our personal data would have a very tight level of security to help us feel more secure.

Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly the case, especially if you’re using Google Chrome as your default browser. For those of you who are not aware, Chrome stores saved passwords from different users on a single directory within the browser. Users simple need to point the browser at “chrome://settings/passwords” or go to the password management option in advanced settings and click on one of the “show” button in each entry to reveal the stored password. This becomes a problem especially if there are other people who are sharing the same computer.

At the moment Google doesn’t treat this flaw as something that will cause big problems in the future. However, a lot of people become concerned after a software developer by the name of Elliott Kember highlighted the issue.

In response, Google Chrome’s security tech lead, Justin Schuh said that once past the OS login stage, anyone can theoretically find passwords and other information on the browser by various means and indirectly suggested that the purported security flaw on Chrome shouldn’t be sensationalised. However, we don’t expect this statement would be enough to appease the number of users concerned with the security of their passwords. But at least the fact that people have taken note of this issue may well push Google to make some changes.