Chrome 87 Released With Performance Boost And Security Fixes

Google has released Chrome 87 today, November 17th, 2020, to the Stable desktop channel, and it includes numerous performance improvements, security fixes, and new features.

With Chrome 87 now promoted to the Stable channel, Chrome 88 is the new Beta version, and Chrome 89 will be the Canary version.

Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop users can upgrade to Chrome 87 by going to Settings -> Help -> About Google Chrome. The browser will then automatically check for the new update and install it when available.

Performance improvements for background tabs

With the release of Chrome 87, Google has added some optimization to increase performance on your computer while using the browser.

After analyzing what resources background tabs utilize, Google determineed that JavaScript Timers use >40% of the resources. With this release, Google is increasing performance by only allowing JavaScript timers to wake up and perform a function once every minute.

“We investigated how background tabs use system resources and found that JavaScript Timers represent >40% of the work in background tabs. Reducing their impact on CPU and power is important to make the browser more efficient. Beginning in M87, we’re throttling JavaScript timer wake-ups in background tabs to once per minute. This reduces CPU usage by up to 5x, and extends battery life up to 1.25 hours in our internal testing. We’ve done this without sacrificing the background features that users care about, like playing music and getting notifications,” Google explains in a blog post.

In addition to JavaScript Timer throttling, Chrome 87 includes Occlusion Tracking to determine what tabs are used so that the browser only allocates resources to the ones you are using.

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Google states this enhancement has made Chrome “up to 25% faster to start up and 7% faster to load pages, all while using less memory.”

Back/Forward cache rolling out to Android users

Google is rolling out the back/forward cache feature to Google Chrome for Android users in a gradual launch.

This feature will store a complete snapshot of the web page, including the JavaScript memory, in the cache so that you can instantly go back and forward between sites and to return to the content right where you left off.

“Back/forward cache (or bfcache) is a browser optimization that enables instant back and forward navigation. It significantly improves the browsing experience for users—especially those with slower networks or devices,” Google explains in a technical article about the feature.

A demonstration of this feature can be seen below.

FTP support disabled by default

In November 2018, we reported that Google planned to remove FTP support from the browser as only .1-.2% of their users visited an FTP site over a seven day.

With the release of Chrome 80, Google began disabling the feature for 1% of its user base as a test, but due to the pandemic, enabled it again so that users would not be blocked from medical information.

With today’s release of Chrome 87, Google has disabled FTP support by default, and attempting to visit an ftp:// site will not do anything in the browser.

Users who still need FTP support can enable it using the chrome://flags/#enable-ftp, but it should be noted that in Chrome 88, all FTP is being removed.

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Security vulnerabilities fixed

Chrome 87 includes a fix for the Slipstream attack discovered by security researcher Samy Kamkar that allows attackers to bypass NAT and access any TCP/UDP port on a victim’s computer.

“NAT Slipstreaming allows an attacker to remotely access any TCP/UDP service bound to a victim machine, bypassing the victim’s NAT/firewall (arbitrary firewall pinhole control), just by the victim visiting a website,” Samy explains in a website about the attack.

Mozilla Firefox also plans to fix this vulnerability in a future release of the browser.

The rest of Chrome 87’s security fixes have not been published yet.