Watch Out: This Nasty Bug Will Crash Your Browser

A researcher has created an attack that can impact your Firefox, Chrome or Safari browser. All you have to do is visit a web page containing a segment of Javascript.

Credit: Shutterstock — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Clicking one of Haddouche's buttons prompts a file with an "extremely long file name" to download onto the victim's computer once every millisecond. This floods the inter-process communication channel, the processes an operating system uses to respond to user requests. This all causes your browser to become unresponsive, or even crash.

MORE: Best Antivirus Software and Apps

The attack could even consume so much memory that the OS itself crashes, according to Bleeping Computer, who first reported the story.

There is not yet a known solution to this noted vulnerability. Haddouche has submitted a bug report calling for Firefox to limit downloading multiple files from one site without permission.

While we wait for that to be fixed, there's not a ton you can do to protect against this attack. Just make sure you don't click on sketchy links that you aren't familiar with, as you never know what scripts might be embedded there.

TOPICS

Monica Chin is a writer at The Verge, covering computers. Previously, she was a staff writer for Tom's Guide, where she wrote about everything from artificial intelligence to social media and the internet of things to. She had a particular focus on smart home, reviewing multiple devices. In her downtime, you can usually find her at poetry slams, attempting to exercise, or yelling at people on Twitter.