Google accidentally broke its password manager leaving millions of users fumbling for their login credentials. The search giant has apologized for pushing a minor but faulty update, which particularly impacted the Chrome web browser for Windows.
Chrome users unable to use Google’s password manager
Millions of Windows OS users were perplexed because their Chrome web browser refused to recall and enter saved passwords. Several users blamed the Operating System while many others cursed the Chrome web browser.
Chrome’s inability to manage usernames and passwords originated from Google’s default password manager for the web browser. Specifically speaking, the M127 version of the Chrome browser for Windows OS was impacted.
Google addressed the problem within its password manager. However, Windows OS users relying on Chrome web browsers were unable to access their saved passwords for nearly 18 hours.
#Technology Google fixes glitch in Password Manager affecting 15 million Windows users: They also said that the issue was limited to the M127 version of Google Chrome on Windows https://t.co/v1ebix6S2F pic.twitter.com/qjpLCZmWSk
— Global Voters (@global_voters) July 30, 2024
Google released a statement indicating the root cause of the issue, “was a change in product behavior without proper feature guard”. Simply put, Google pushed a faulty update that broke down the password manager’s functionality.
Several users observed that Google’s Password Manager was submitting a null password. Assuming the password manager was functioning correctly, some users submitted the login credentials but failed to log in.
Several websites, online services, and web platforms simply claimed “Username or Password incorrect”. Needless to say, this must have prompted users to hit the “Forgot or Reset Password” button even when their login credentials were working.
Google Password Manager restored but user confidence shaken?
Google issued an emergency fix and confirmed that the password manager was functioning normally. However, such disruptions would undoubtedly impact user confidence.
Millions of users’ passwords were temporarily deleted from Chrome worldwide! Google issued a statement and apologized for the incident.
According to the information received, this temporary problem in the password manager, which persisted for a long time, affected 15 million… pic.twitter.com/cqLYcO89h2
— Artificial Intelligent Technologies (@xForAiT) July 29, 2024
Microsoft Windows 10 had recently crashed on approximately 8.5 million computers across the world. Interestingly, a faulty update was the root cause behind this outage as well. In Google’s case, rough estimates reportedly suggest about 15-17 million individuals may have been affected by the near-day-long outage.
Such disruptions have once again highlighted the need to have multiple backups. Additionally, several experts have advised users to have devices with alternative operating systems such as Linux, and reliable apps to store and manage their login credentials.
2024-07-31 15:08:18