Google Chrome OS successfully hacked

One of Google’s Chrome OS strongest selling points was the fact that it had much better built-in security than other operating systems. The OS split up between different hard drive partitions: one swap partition, one encrypted user partition and one read-only operating system root partition to make life difficult for any attackers to take advantage of. Well it looks like those walls have crumbled.

Some security researchers at the recent Black Hat security conference announced that they had used web-based hacker tricks to compromise the security of the OS. The hacks allowed the researchers access users’ emails, Google Docs, contacts, and Google Voice messages using their exploits. And all this has been discovered only within months of the operating system’s introduction into the market.

Fortunately for Google, they’ve been informed of the operating system’s weaknesses and it is now up to them to get the problems fixed. This goes to show that nothing is ever 100% safe, no matter what the marketing brochure or companies tell you. Hopefully a fix or an update arrives before these exploits become widespread and jeopardize the reputation of Google Chrome OS’ security.

George Wong
Categories: Computers, Web
Tags: Google, google chrome, Hacking, internet, operating system, Security