Malwarebytes today confirmed that Windows 11 Cumulative Update 22H2 KB5027231 released this Patch Tuesday breaks Google Chrome on its customers’ systems.

Windows administrators and users are reporting that devices are affected by this issue after rolling out yesterday’s Windows 11 updates.

While uninstalling update KB5027231 fixes the issue, admins report that it is not possible to do so through WSUS due to a “catastrophic error”.

“I sent KB5027231 to a user group, and I have Chrome broken everywhere. Attempting to roll back via wusa shows a ‘catastrophic error’ in Event Viewer, and WSUS shows I can’t go back”, an administrator said.

“We’ve had about 400 machines that got the fix, and certainly not all of them are having the issue. I’ve had maybe 30 issues,” the same user said. said in another comment.

The Google Chrome process is running but cannot fully launch the application and load the UI due to the conflict.

As confirmed by Malwarebytes staff, the issue is cause by Malwarebytes anti-exploit module prevents Chrome from loading after installing the Update KB5027231.

The company today released a support article confirming the conflict between Malwarebytes and Google Chrome after installing Patch Tuesday June 2023 updates on Windows 11 systems.

“On June 13, 2023, Microsoft’s KB5027231 update installed on Windows 11 caused a conflict between Google Chrome and Exploit Protection, resulting in browser crashes”, Malwarebytes said.

Malwarebytes users experiencing issues launching Google Chrome can disable the web browser from the list of protected apps in their Malwarebytes product from Settings > Security tab > Manage protected apps.

Workaround available

The step-by-step procedure needed to disable Google Chrome as a protected app in Malwarebytes’ security settings requires you to:

1. Open Malwarebytes on your device.
2. At the top right, click the Settings wheel.
3. Click it Security tongue.
4. Below Exploit ProtectionClick on Manage protected apps.
5. Disable Google Chrome (and plugins).
6. Click on Do.

Malwarebytes advises customers to re-enable app protection for Google Chrome once the issue is fixed in a future update.

“We are currently experiencing issues with Malwarebytes Exploit Protection and Chrome in Windows 11 where you will see Chrome crash. We suspect this is happening due to a Windows Update (KB5027231) which was released on June 13, 2023”, Malwarebytes VP of ProductMichael Sherwood said.

“We are actively troubleshooting this issue and will come back with more information as soon as possible.”

A Microsoft spokesperson was unavailable for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.

H/T Zacharie