Four months after the release of version 4.0 for Windows, Google has announced the availability of Chrome 5.0 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux – the first stable release to be available on all three major platforms. In addition to addressing several high-risk security vulnerabilities, the latest release of the WebKit-based browser includes a number of new features.

Chrome 5.0.375.55, previously only available as a beta release, enables extensions to work in incognito mode via the extensions manager and supports syncing for browser preferences such as themes, homepage and startup settings – bookmark sync was added in version 4.0. A number of HTML5 features have also been incorporated including Geolocation APIs, App Cache and file drag and drop. Adobe's Flash Player is not yet integrated into the stable branch of Chrome; however, the Google Product Manager Brian Rakowski says that it will be enabled when the final version of Flash Player 10.1 is released. The developers say that it's their "fastest version of Chrome to date" and note that they have fixed "a range of minor issues such as non-exploitable crashes, hangs and other annoyances".

Google has also addressed a total of six vulnerabilities, two of them rated has high-risk. The first high-risk issue relates to possible URL bar spoofing via unload event handlers, while the second relates to the incorrect execution of Javascript in the extension context. The remaining four medium-risk exploits range from Safe Browsing problems to whitelist-mode plug-in blocker and drag and drop memory errors. Further details of the vulnerabilities are being withheld until "a majority of users are up-to-date with the fix".

More details about the release can be found in the release announcement and release notes. Chrome 5.0.375.55 is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from google.com/chrome. Users who currently have Chrome installed can use the built-in update function by clicking Tools, selecting About Google Chrome and clicking the Update button.