Comodo to fix major flaw in knock-off Chrome browser

Comodo will release an update Wednesday to fix a serious vulnerability in its web browser, which it markets as a way for users to enhance their security.

Google engineer Tavis Ormandy found that the company’s Chromodo browser disables the “same origin policy,” one of the most basic tenets of web security, according to a writeup.

The policy is intended to prevent one website from running code on another unless the sites are considered to have the same origin. Not implementing the policy means an attacker could steal confidential data from a website or its users.

In a statement, Comodo said the vulnerability isn’t in the browser itself, which is based on the open-source code behind Google’s Chrome browser. Rather, it said the issue is with an add-on. Chromodo has a feature that block ads and web trackers.

It suggested that such vulnerabilities are inevitable.

“As an industry, software in general is always being updated, patched, fixed, addressed, improved – it goes hand in hand with any development cycle,” Comodo’s statement said. “What is critical in software development is how companies address an issue if a certain vulnerability is found – ensuring it never puts the customer at risk.”

Those using Chromodo should receive the update, Comodo said.

On Tuesday, Ormandy wrote that a quick patch developed by Comodo to block an exploit he had created wasn’t effective.

He underscored the severity of the flaw in his advisory. 

“This vulnerability is bad enough to start paging people,” he wrote.