In an update scheduled to go live with Chrome 88 in January 2021, Google has included tab hijacking protection in their browser. This protects against instances where links open in a new tab using the target=”_blank” attribute and modify the original page to redirect users to malicious sites. This fix implements a solution that has been pushed by security researchers for website owners to implement, but on a global scale for all Chromium-based browser users.
The original solution asked site owners to add a rel=”noopener” or rel=”noreferrer”. However, following the pattern set with changes that are already live for Apple and Mozilla browsers, Chrome will automatically add rel=”noopener” to any newly opened tabs. Additionally, this protection will be added to all other Chromium based browsers, including Microsoft Edge and Brave.
