[German]Yesterday Google released the Chrome browser version 78 (see Chrome 78 released). Users who have Symantec Antivirus or Endpoint Protection installed got a nasty surprise. Symantec Antivirus crashes browser tabs. The Microsoft Edge browser version 78, which is based on Chromium, is also affected and can’t longer displays pages.
On reddit.com you can find thispost, which was created on October 23, 2019, shortly after the release of Chrome 78. A user writes:
Chrome 78 Update & Symantec Endpoint Protection Issue!
Hi, Few hours ago Google released Update 78 for Chrome and since then it’s seems to be broken for symantec endpoint protection users.
The problem is you can’t load any pages, You will get “Aw, Snap” Error.
The workaround I found was to launch chrome with no sandbox:Chrome.exe –no-sandbox
Anyone know a permanent solution?
My symantec endpoint protection version is 14.0 MP1
The same post may be found within the Symantec forum. In the meantime, Symantec has published this support article on the topic.
Google Chrome version 78.0.x error “Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage.” when using a Symantec Endpoint Protection
When launching Google Chrome version 78.0.x or later, the message “Aw Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage.” is present if any version of Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) is installed with the Application Control feature on Windows Server 2016. This issue also affects Microsoft Edge Chromium version 78.0x with an error message of “Page cannot be displayed”.
This issue also impacts Chrome/Chromium installed on any Operating System (OS) if a SEP version older than 14.2 is installed.
The browser then reports Aw Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage, and the tab no longer works.
Chrome and Edge affected
The problem affects not only Google Chrome, but also the Microsoft Edge browser when it uses the Chromium engine. The problem occurs in all versions of Windows when the following environment is present:
- Browser-Version
- Google Chrome 78.0.x (October 2019)
- Microsoft Edge Chromium 78.0.x
- Windows Server 2016 with any version of SEP installed.
- Any Windows OS with a SEP version older than 14.2 installed.
The issue is related to Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) up to version 14.2 because SEP Application Control technology is not compatible with the browser once Microsoft’s Code Integrity feature is enabled.
On any operating system other than Windows Server 2016, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) can be upgraded to version 14.2 or later to resolve the incompatibility.
Symantec and its security products are slowly becoming troble makers, as the tweet below shows.
Symantec antivirus crashes something again. This time Chrome 78 browsers
They previously:
-borked Windows updates in August
-borked Chrome 76 on macOS in August
-caused a shitload of BSODs after the Oct Patch Tuesdayhttps://t.co/zOPC7YBbsT pic.twitter.com/PgpgmBxx7U— Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi) October 24, 2019
In August 2019, Symantec corrupted Windows Updates. In the same month, Chrome 76 was corrupted under macOS and after the October 2019 patchday there were blue screens under Windows.
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