Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report Shows Largest Uptick

Is it any wonder Microsoft is rumored to be launching Windows 11, with the Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report showing the largest uptick since the inception of the report? Who could blame Microsoft for wanting to dump Windows 10 and start all over with Windows 11?

Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report

News of vulnerabilities never seems to make users feel at ease. And while we’ve heard much about the Windows vulnerabilities, we tend to think all operating systems have vulnerabilities – and they do! But some have more – many more – than others.

The 2021 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report shows stats of the previous year. Along with assessing vulnerabilities, it also assesses companies’ severity rating and takes a look at how many could be
mitigated. The Windows vulnerabilities result in major security breaches – in fact, one in three are caused by unpatched vulnerabilities.

There were 1,268 Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2020. That’s an astounding 48 percent rise over the reports in 2019. Of those 2020 reported vulnerabilities, 196 were rated as critical. And of those, 109 could have been mitigated by the removal of administrator rights.

In 2020 alone, 90 percent of critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer would have been mitigated through the removal of admin rights, 85 percent would have been through Edge, and 100 percent through Outlook.

Comparing OS Vulnerabilities

Again, all OSes have vulnerabilities, but to better gauge the severity of Microsoft’s vulnerabilities, let’s compare it to other operating systems.

Since 2018, Windows 10 is third on the list of critical vulnerabilities, but it’s higher on the list than any Apple or Google product. The only two OSes that had more vulnerabilities were Debian (2800) and Ubuntu (1939), with Windows 10 having 1765.

Right below Windows 10 is Windows Server 2016 with 1731. This is followed closely by Android with 1712. Windows Server 2019, Fedora, Windows Server 2012, and Windows 8.1 follow.

Google Chrome is next down the list, in tenth place with 1067 critical vulnerabilities, followed by Linux Kernel and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server. Apple finally cracks the list in thirteenth place with 820 vulnerabilities. macOS is in sixteenth place with only 759.

Looking just at 2020’s numbers for total vulnerabilities, Google landed behind Microsoft in second place with 950 to Microsoft’s 1,188. Apple was in eighth place with 381.

The current 2021 stats follow similar placement with companies. Microsoft is again at number one with 510 vulnerabilities so far, Google in a close second with 507, and Apple in ninth place with 147. Looking at individual products, Windows 10 is again in third place – behind Fedora and Debian.

With the poor performance of Windows 10 on the Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report, is it any wonder they are rumored to be introducing Windows 11 soon? These vulnerabilities don’t reflect well on Microsoft and only lead to security breaches. Windows 11 could be a way to start over.

Read on to learn about Microsoft blaming Chinese hackers for exploiting four zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange.