Google's Mishap Leaves 15 Million Chrome Users Unable to Use Saved Passwords, Issue Persists for 18 Hours Before Resolution
Brook.X
If you rely on Google Chrome's built-in password manager, you might have encountered an issue where passwords could not be auto-filled on July 24th to 25th. This problem affected approximately 15 million users and lasted for 18 hours.
Nowadays, most browsers come equipped with features to generate strong passwords and remember login credentials, simplifying the login process through automatic password filling.
A change in Chrome caused users to be unable to search for or save passwords in the password manager, and as a result, auto-fill functionality was also compromised during login.
The outage lasted from July 24, 2024, 22:36 UTC to July 25, 2024, 16:27 UTC, totaling 17 hours and 51 minutes, mainly affecting users of Chrome version 127. It's estimated that about 25% of users who updated were impacted.
Google's preliminary investigation attributed the issue to a change in product behavior without adequate feature protection. After identifying the problem, Google engineers deployed a fix to mitigate the issue. Google did not specify the exact number of users affected, but Forbes estimates it to be around 15 million.
Landian.news, which regularly uses third-party password managers, did not notice this problem. Extensions from third-party password managers can replace Chrome's password manager, so users of these third-party services were not affected.
Google has announced plans to release a detailed report on the incident. As of this article's publication, the report has not been made available. The issue is believed to stem from a configuration change that fundamentally disrupted the functionality of the password manager.
Interestingly, users who utilize both Chrome and Microsoft Edge might not have experienced significant disruption. Microsoft Edge automatically imports Chrome's bookmarks, history, and saved passwords periodically. Therefore, some users switched to Microsoft Edge for uninterrupted service when Chrome faced this issue.
