8 of the 10 Most Exploited Bugs Last Year Involved Microsoft Products

Six of the 10 most exploited bugs were the same as in the previous year, according to new Recorded Future analysis.

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For the third year in a row, cybercriminals employed vulnerabilities in Microsoft products far more so than security flaws in any other technology, new data for 2019 shows.

Eight out of the 10 most exploited vulnerabilities in 2019 in fact impacted Microsoft products. The other two—including the most exploited flaw—involved Adobe Flash Player, the previous top attacker favorite, according to analysis by Recorded Future.

Like it has done for past several years, Recorded Future analyzed data gathered from vulnerability databases and other sources to try and identify the vulnerabilities that were most used in phishing attacks, exploit kits, and remote access Trojans.  

The threat intelligence firm considered data on some 12,000 vulnerabilities that were reported and rated through the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) system last year. Vulnerabilities related to nation-state exploits were specifically excluded from the list because such flaws are not typically offered for sale or even mentioned much on underground forums, according to Recorded Future.

The 2019 analysis showed a continued—and unsurprising—preference among cybercriminals for flaws impacting Microsoft software.

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About the Authors

Jai Vijayan

Contributing writer, Dark Reading

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a senior editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a master's degree in statistics and lives in Naperville, Illinois.

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