Google Chrome Password Manager Flaw Triggered Outage

The tech giant has shared details about the recent Google Chrome Password Manager outage that hit users globally. As explained in its incident report, the outage existed for 17 hours and 51 minutes (approx. 18 hours), during which time Google Chrome users could not locate their login credentials stored in the browser. While the “Save Password” feature continued to work, the problem typically affected the passwords’ visibility. Thus, even upon saving any passwords afresh, they could not retrieve them from the browser. Aside from password visibility, the outage also impacted Chrome’s auto-fill feature, which meant users were supposed to fill all online forms and passwords manually. This situation caused much trouble for users relying on their browser’s auto-fill feature. While a severe issue, it fortunately only affected a specific Google Chrome version (127.0.6533.57), thus saving the other version users from the hassle. Yet, it wasn’t much of a relief since the glitch appeared in the most recent Chrome version, which every user eventually upgraded to. Thus, as expected, as the bug became active, users started sharing their complaints on social media. One user even posted on Reddit about facing Chrome crashes upon opening the Password Manager. Likewise, another user complained about seeing “Save Password?” prompts on every site, including the previously declined ones. Eventually, Google came to know of the issue from numerous user complaints originating from around the world, as evident via Google’s bug report.