Microsoft's latest Windows 11 Patch Tuesday causes Malwarebytes to block Google Chrome

Yesterday was the second Tuesday of the month and as expected, Microsoft released Patch Tuesday updates on Windows 10 (KB5027215, among others), and Windows 11 (KB5027231). Although undocumented by Microsoft in the known issues section, the latter seems to be causing issues in accessing and launching Google's Chrome web browser for users with Malwarebytes anti-virus.

A user with the name codesmitery posted the following complaint on the Malwarebytes forum:

Updating to June 2023 Update (KB5027231) prevents Google Chrome from displaying after loading. Chrome will be listed in the task manager but you cannot get it to display.

The only thing you can do is quite [sic] Malwarebytes.

If you are wondering whether Windows 10 is affected as well, it seems to not be the case as a user Porthos points out that their Windows 10 system is not experiencing the same bug:

That is ok. Staff responded with a workaround. I have Windows 10 and have no current issues with Chrome. Seems to be an 11 issue.

A Malwarebytes staff with the username Arthi confirmed that they are looking at the issue and provided a couple of workarounds. One of those involves setting Chrome as the default browser while the other option is to disable protection for Chrome in Malwarebytes:

    Thanks for posting. Like you mentioned this issue is being reported to us since today's windows update, we are looking into it.

    As a workaround, there are a couple of options that have internally worked for us

•        Try setting Chrome as a default browser

        OR

•         Turn off Chrome as a protected application in the Malwarebytes product. you can find this in Settings->Security tab

Other users have found that disabling "exploit protection" also works in case the above official workarounds don't work.

Another Malwarebytes employee with the username Erix has stated that the firm is working on an update that will address the issue. They write:

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    We are currently working on an update that will address this problem.

    Thank you so much.

    -Erix

We will keep you posted about the issue when there is any new development.

Source