Security company XBOW published details of a full Chrome exploit chain on Windows that let an attacker take over a computer when the user simply visited a malicious page. Its team, using a publicly available AI model, linked three unknown bugs together in six days. Google confirmed and fixed the bugs and paid a $250,000 bounty, the first under its new 2026 rules. Reports put the compute cost at about $40,000.
What it means: The story shows how quickly the time and cost of finding serious vulnerabilities are falling. Work that once took specialist teams months can now be done in days with tools anyone can access. For Greek businesses the practical takeaway is simple: automatic browser and operating system updates are not optional, and the gap between a fix and its installation should be measured in hours, not weeks. Anyone managing a fleet of computers in offices or shops needs a central update policy and reporting on devices that fall behind. For software companies the same trend works in reverse: if AI can find holes in Chrome, it will find them in their own code too. They should add automated AI-assisted security testing to their development pipeline before an attacker runs the same tools against them. Security budgets also need to plan for faster patch cycles, because the volume of findings is set to grow sharply. Browser extensions deserve the same attention, since they are often missed during audits.
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