All it takes is 16 characters to crash Chrome browser; user creates game based on vulnerability

There have been reports of a text bug in Google Chrome. A specific combination of text causes the browser to crash. According to issue number 533361 on code.google.com, user Andris Atteka reported the issue:

If you have chrome and would like to test [redacted] enter “http://a/%%30%30” into your browser address bar. According to /. comments, also crashes opera. Firefox just tries to load the deformed url anyway, good ole firefox. EDIT: mousing over the link will beat it up as well.

The discussion on the forum says that the issue is restricted to desktop versions of Chrome for Windows, Linux and Mac, which have been confirmed so far. Mobile browsers including Chrome for Android are not affected by the vulnerability. The discussion also specifically highlights that despite being a WebKit browser, the BlackBerry 10 browser isn’t affected by the flaw. Users have reported how simply hovering over the link (http://a/%%30%30) causes Chrome to crash. User szhu created a game out of the Chrome vulnerability and has posted the same on GitHub. In what appears to be a maze of trees and bears, you could hover around the maze with your mouse. The moment you touch trees, your browser crashes. [caption id=“attachment_282041” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Hover over the maze, but touch a tree and your browser crashes. Image: GitHub.com/szhu[/caption] You could try the trick on Chrome by heading over to the GitHub page for szhu. We recommend you do this after you are done with important browser tasks and critical Chrome tabs are closed.