https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/google-pushed-a-one-character-typo-to-production-bricking-chrome-os-devices/ Skip to main content * Biz & IT * Tech * Science * Policy * Cars * Gaming & Culture * Store * Forums Subscribe [ ] Close Navigate * Store * Subscribe * Videos * Features * Reviews * RSS Feeds * Mobile Site * About Ars * Staff Directory * Contact Us * Advertise with Ars * Reprints Filter by topic * Biz & IT * Tech * Science * Policy * Cars * Gaming & Culture * Store * Forums Settings Front page layout Grid List Site theme Black on white White on black Sign in Comment activity Sign up or login to join the discussions! [ ] [ ] [Submit] [ ] Stay logged in | Having trouble? Sign up to comment and more Sign up I guess three testing channels are not enough? -- Google pushed a one-character typo to production, bricking Chrome OS devices Google broke a conditional statement that verifies passwords. A fix is rolling out. Ron Amadeo - Jul 22, 2021 5:32 pm UTC Google pushed a one-character typo to production, bricking Chrome OS devices Enlarge Bloomberg / Getty Images reader comments 81 with 67 posters participating Share this story * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share on Reddit Google says it has fixed a major Chrome OS bug that locked users out of their devices. Google's bulletin says that Chrome OS version 91.0.4472.165, which was briefly available this week, renders users unable to log in to their devices, essentially bricking them. Chrome OS automatically downloads updates and switches to the new version after a reboot, so users who reboot their devices are suddenly locked out them. The go-to advice while this broken update is out there is to not reboot. The bulletin says that a new build, version 91.0.4472.167, is rolling out now to fix the issue, but it could take a "few days" to hit everyone. Users affected by the bad update can either wait for the device to update again or "powerwash" their device--meaning wipe all the local data--to get logged in. Chrome OS is primarily cloud-based, so if you're not doing something advanced like running Linux apps, this solution presents less of an inconvenience than it would on other operating systems. Still, some users are complaining about lost data. ChromeOS is open source, so we can get a bit more detail about the fix thanks to Android Police hunting down a Reddit comment from user elitist_ferret. The problem apparently boils down to a single-character typo. Google flubbed a conditional statement in Chrome OS's Cryptohome VaultKeyset, the part of the OS that holds user encryption keys. The line should read "if (key_data_.has_value() && !key_data_->label().empty()) {" but instead of "&&"--the C++ version of the "AND" operator--the bad update used a single ampersand, breaking the second half of the conditional statement. Advertisement ChromeOS's programming typo. It happens to the best of us. Enlarge / ChromeOS's programming typo. It happens to the best of us. It sounds like, because of this error, Chrome OS never properly checked user passwords against the stored keys, so even correct passwords came back with a message saying, "Sorry, your password could not be verified." The whole selling point of Chrome OS is that it's reliable and unbreakable, and botched updates like this hurt the OS. It's not clear how such an obvious, show-stopping problem like this made it into the stable release channel. Chrome OS has three testing channels that changes are supposed to go through--the "canary," "dev," and "beta" channels--with weeks of testing between releases. Somehow this bug escaped that entire process. This problem also seems like something a unit test or automated testing could have caught--not being able to log in is pretty obvious. The error marks the second defective Chrome OS update pushed out this month. An update at the beginning of July made CPU usage spike on some models, slowing them down to a crawl. reader comments 81 with 67 posters participating Share this story * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share on Reddit Ron Amadeo Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Email ron@arstechnica.com // Twitter @RonAmadeo Advertisement You must login or create an account to comment. Channel Ars Technica - Previous story Next story - Related Stories Today on Ars * Store * Subscribe * About Us * RSS Feeds * View Mobile Site * Contact Us * Staff * Advertise with us * Reprints Newsletter Signup Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Sign me up - CNMN Collection WIRED Media Group (c) 2021 Conde Nast. 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