Microsoft's September Patch Release Sets Record With 972 Vulnerabilities Fixed
Microsoft's September update fixes a record 972 vulnerabilities, including 112 rated critical, as industry warnings about AI-powered attacks mount.
Only two months ago, Microsoft patched a then-record 570 vulnerabilities. Last month, the company fixed around 620. Google and other vendors have also published record numbers of vulnerabilities in recent months.
Two weeks before this release, OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and 100 other companies and organizations published an open letter warning that the window for patching vulnerabilities is narrowing ahead of an expected "tsunami" of AI-enabled attacks that actively exploit them. The industry has responded by issuing an unprecedented number of patches.
Dustin Childs, a researcher at the Zero Day Initiative, called the spikes the "new normal." He cautioned that despite the patch volume, the damage likely to result from AI-assisted attacks could eventually be substantial.