How to Check if Web Browser is Vulnerable to Spectre

The Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities that were all over the news a few weeks ago affect a large number of computers all over the world. While the operating system updates are already available, the system BIOS updates are still to be released by many manufacturers. We have posted a number of different ways in which you can check whether your computer’s processor is affected by these vulnerabilities and whether you have already installed the updates to patch your system against the vulnerabilities. For example, we published about the Ashampoo tool to check if your CPU is vulnerable to Spectre or Meltdown.

But if you want to know whether your web browser is affected with Spectre vulnerability, then you can use a simple JavaScript based tool developed by Tencent labs. In order to use this tool, all you have to do is visit the web page at https://xlab.tencent.com/special/spectre/spectre_check.html and then click on the Click to Check button.

Browser Spectre Check

It will run some JavaScript based tools in your web browser for a few seconds before letting you know if your web browser is vulnerable to Spectre or not. If your web browser is vulnerable, then it will show a red colored message – “Your web browser is vulnerable to Spectre”. If your web browser is not vulnerable, then you will see a green colored message – “Your web browser is NOT vulnerable to Spectre”.

Browser Spectre Check

In case, it find that your web browser is vulnerable, you should update the web browser to the latest version immediately. After updating the web browser, you should run the test again and if the web browser is still vulnerable, then you should switch to another web browser. At this time, the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are known to be not vulnerable and you should switch to them for some time.