A researcher has uncovered a vulnerability in Google Chrome that he said can allow an attacker to listen in on someone, even if the victim blocks access to their microphone in the Chrome settings.
The attack is made possible by exploiting the old speech application programming interface (API) in Google Chrome, according to a Monday post by Guy Aharonovsky, who added it is particularly troublesome because the victim may never know it is happening.
In a video, Aharonovsky demonstrated the flaw on a Mac, but he said it works similarly on other operating systems.
After no fix was issued by January, a web developer posted about a similar Chrome bug that could allow a microphone to be turned on just by passing through a malicious website. Those findings were discovered and reported to Google in September 2013.
