Visiting this URL will crash Chrome

All you have to do is copy the following 16 characters http://a/%%30%30, paste it in the Google Chrome search bar and press search or enter.

A new Chrome bug has come to light, as a simple URL string can instantly crash the browser.

A recent bug in Google Chrome has been discovered that seems to be crashing the browser on entering a 16-character link in the address bar.

A new bug now affects Google’s Chrome browser in a like manner, as Andris Atteka points out in a new blog post. If you’re wondering why we didn’t just link to the problematic URL, it’s because simply hovering over the link can lead to a crash too. A message will then appear in your screen telling you that “something went wrong while displaying the webpage” and asking you to reload the page or open another one to continue using the browser.

Google are thought to be fixing the bug, but Chrome users are being warned to watch out for fake tweets tempting them into trying the bug.

Atteka further noted that he didn’t receive any reward for this finding because it was “deemed to be only a DOS vulnerability”.

However, VentureBeat reported that it managed to formulate its shorter version of the 16-character string (http://a/%%30%30). The mobile version of Chrome, meanwhile, seems to be unaffected, as it doesn’t crash with either of the two URL string examples. Yet, on its conducted tests, such would not affect Chrome browsers installed on Android smartphones.

A response from Google is still awaited on this latest issue.

Typing the characters into other browsers including Safari and Firefox causes no similar issues. However, these bugs have already been dealt with.