Specifically, we are referring to the latest version of the popular browser from the search giant, Chrome 124. In most cases, the hundreds of millions of users of this program update it as soon as they receive the new version from Google. However, on certain occasions some problems arise from this, as is happening now.
We tell you all this because after installing the new version, some Chrome users report that they have problems connecting to websites, servers, and firewalls. All this after getting the new Chrome 124 on their computers. The main problem of all this is given by a new function encapsulation which integrates the recent version of the browser and is activated by default.
We are talking about how Google began testing the TLS key encapsulation mechanism in August of last year. You have now enabled it in the latest version of Chrome for all users. This functionality uses the Kyber768 key algorithm to TLS 1.3 connections. It is used to protect Chrome’s TLS traffic against quantum cryptanalysis.
As we told you, the company has been experimenting with this tool for several months to check its compatibility and impact on performance. But apparently things have not gone as well as initially expected, something that many users who have updated to Chrome 124 have already experienced.
In short, what should initially be a security feature has become a headache for some.
Fix quantum safety bug in Chrome 124
This protects user traffic from certain attacks in which a future quantum computer could decrypt encrypted traffic. But apparently the feature damages the connection experience with certain web pages. Keep in mind that to protect themselves from future attacks, companies have already started adding resistant encryption to quantum security to prevent these types of decryption strategies.
The problem is that this integration in Google Chrome 124 hurts some websites, firewalls and servers. All of this seems to break the TLS protocol for servers that don’t know what to do with the additional browser data now included. If you are one of those affected, there is a simple solution that fixes this problem.
At first we only have to access the experimental function by typing the following in the Google Chrome navigation bar.
chrome://flags/#enable-tls13-kyber
Next we just have to deactivate the TLS 1.3 support hybridized Kyber in the program to not experience this failure again. Once the change is made and the browser is restarted, the new security feature is disabled and Chrome will return to its normal state.
From there we will only have to wait for Google to definitively solve the problem with TLS connections derived from this feature in future versions of the program.
