Looking for the 2017 version of this data? Click Each year, we like to look back on the previous year and learn what we can from all the patches, updates, and incidents that were experienced.
After all, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And 2015 was quite the year with an average of 25 vulnerabilities per day , according to the data from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).
The idea here is not to poke at any vendor for their vulnerabilities, but rather to ensure we are aware of what was out there and to be sure we’ve all got ourselves current and up to date. All software is written by humans, and exploited by humans, and until the former changes, the latter never will. As long as a vendor releases an update for a vulnerability before it is exploited (and the update doesn’t break anything else, which can be a mighty big IF) then the number of vulnerabilities is less about quality and more about complexity. But, with that said, it’s important to know what was out there and to be sure you have updated everything as you should.
So let’s take a look at the most vulnerable players of 2015. Our Sources Before we break out the details, let’s talk about where this information comes from., maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), includes details on each CVE that has been issued. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures assigns a specific number to any reported vulnerability, and tracks its status, as a way to standardize on information security reporting and to provide both vulnerability scanners and update systems with a common way to reference each vulnerability. We also used the great query capabilities at the CVE Details website, to parse the CVE data and get aggregate numbers where relevant. The Approach Using this data, we found that the top three companies for total vulnerabilities are Microsoft, Adobe, and Apple.
It’s very interesting, to me at least, that while Microsoft and Apple both have multiple operating systems and applications in their portfolio, Adobe only makes applications and yet came in second. And while Linux fans may feel smug reading the top three, if you add up all the various distributions’ vulnerabilities, they do come in at number four.
Some specific Linux distros had more vulnerabilities than some specific Windows operating systems. There are no winners here, and by raising awareness we’re trying to be sure there are no losers. I have been dealing with security accreditations across multiple US federal government and financial industry players for the past two years. One surprising thing I have found is this.
Vulnerability Statistics For Machine Learning Pratap Dangeti
They don’t care whether a vulnerability is categorized by the vendor as being a High, a Medium, or a Low, or whether updates are Critical or Recommended or Optional. They just want to see an audit report or vulnerability scan come back with zero items found before they will even consider letting you plug it into their test network. As a result, we’re not going to worry about what level of risk the vendor places on a vulnerability.
Either it is a vulnerability or it is not. Finally, with over 8000 new vulnerabilities registered in the CVE last year, we’re not going to try to crunch all of them. If we did, we’d have to list about 2000 vendors since so many had just one. We’re going for the major players here that are likely present in every single network any of our readers administer. Summary 2015 was another banner year for vulnerabilities, exceeding even the hype of 2014.
The NVD added a total of 8822 new vulnerabilities in 2015, far exceeding 2014. Here’s how the past few years are trending. It kind of makes you miss 2011 doesn’t it? This year, we’re going to break out the top vulnerabilities (not all 8000+ of them, just the top 5000 or so) by the following categories; Operating Systems, browsers, mobile devices, and applications.
Here’s how those shake out: From a vendor perspective, here’s how the year shook out across the top vendors, which accounted for 38% of all the vulnerabilities registered in 2015 at 3992 of the 8822. So enough with the eye candy, let’s get to some numbers! Operating Systems Let’s start the breakdown by looking at operating systems, which will include Apple’s OSX, Microsoft’s Windows, and various distributions of Linux. It’s important to note that some vulnerabilities may impact multiple versions of Windows or distributions of Linux, and we didn’t pull out these overlaps.
The NVD lists each individually so that’s what we went with. If you are running Windows 8.1, you don’t really care if a vulnerability also impacts Windows 7. You just need to get your 8.1 patched, so I took the same approach here. Of note, both the OS X versions and various kernel or distro-specific versions of Linux were put together, so we left them that way. Given the overwhelming prominence of the various Windows operating systems in the enterprise, it seems like a sensible way to go here. It’s critical to note that Microsoft Windows 2003, which had 36 new vulnerabilities discovered in 2015, is no longer supported by Microsoft. Unless you have paid for a custom support agreement, you’d better not be running any 2003 in your environment, as that’s 36 unpatched vulnerabilities discovered.
Browsers Web browsers are particularly important to keep up with, as they are used constantly by just about every end user throughout the day, and are the gateway to attack for any number of exploits. Remember too that effective January 2016, Microsoft went to an N only support stance for Internet Explorer, which matches how Google supports Chrome, the Mozilla Foundation supports Firefox, and Apple supports Safari. If you are not running the latest version of your browser of choice, you’re in an unsupported and unpatched territory, which makes that browser a ticking time-bomb. Yes, IE had far and away the most vulnerabilities. It also has the most market share on desktops, which. Of course, that looks a little different when so Android phones, tablets, and Chromebooks are doing well. But since their browser is typically considered part of the device’s OS and not a separate product, we’re going to include those all up in the next section.Of course, that looks a little different when so Android phones, tablets, and Chromebooks are doing well.
Mobile Devices Tablets and phones are just another form factor of computer, but since their operating systems are typically more closed, and normal end users don’t have as much administrative access to them, we’re going to call them out separately in this post. We’re not sure if Windows Phone doesn’t show up because it’s so secure, or because it’s such a tiny slice of the market. Does anyone reading this besides me have a Windows phone? And before you leave a comment, the CVE breaks out iOS from Apple Watch and Apple TV, so then so did we.
Applications Not to be forgotten, your favourite applications were full of vulnerabilities and in need of patching throughout 2015. These, if nothing else, scream for the need to since Windows Update won’t do any of the third party apps running on your network. With all those vulnerabilities, and to be fair, given how many browsers have already stopped supporting it, the only thing most of us use it for is old games anyway.
Conclusion They say knowing is half the battle, and now you know. It may be fun to bash Microsoft and talk about how insecure Windows is, but since the other two operating systems out there had more vulnerabilities in 2015 than Windows did, perhaps we should focus a little more on how to make sure all our systems, no matter which vendor they came from, are kept secure and up to date. Again, if you tally up all the vulnerabilities, the number that impact apps and browsers are greater than the number that impacts operating systems.
You can set your OS to auto update, but can you count on your users to update their apps too? There were over four thousand vulnerabilities last year affecting systems that are probably on your network right now. That’s over ten new vulnerabilities a day. With over 8800 in total, that’s 25 per day! And 2016 looks like it could exceed that rate. There is just no way to keep up with that unless you you use.
If your boss doesn’t believe you need tools to keep up, show him these numbers and ask him or her how else you can keep up with that many new vulnerabilities a day. Stan Williams August 1, 2016 at 11:32 am I can honestly say that in 11 years of running Linux and visiting any website I chose, risky ones and even know malicious ones, I have no fear and I have Never once been infected with Any type of malware Ever, and with Windows being as careful as I could be and using things like Web Of Trust to warn of reported malicious sites etc.
I still Often was infected with malware and sometimes so badly that I have had to reinstall Windows to fix it? Especially Windows XP, and For example this PC I am on now,a quad core HP that came with Windows 8.1. After having it a little over one month after it was new, with the antivirus that came with it updated and running, it was destroyed by malware so badly in fact that I had to reinstall Windows and lost all my files and installed programs because stupidly I hadn’t backed it up yet. So after that I reformatted this drive and installed Linux that I am typing this with, and I dual boot, but I only get online with Linux except to update Windows and a few necessary things, but the least possible.
I use Windows for proprietary programs like Avid Pro tools to record audio and some others that weren’t made to run on Linux, and I have not had ANY trouble for almost 2 years now. In fact I can Download Viruses and disassemble them to see how they work with this Linux,and have done so from infected sites, and as I stated previously in 11 years of use with Linux, I have Never even had ONE incident of malware.
I also repair computers and I have cleaned and repaired many many Windows based PC’s for people that were damaged or infected with malware over the years, and I have yet to see a Linux system which was infected. I have repaired websites running Linux that were hacked through the CMS though. Usually through SQL injection, but once someone had set the wrong permissions for a folder and left it writeable ( 777). Bart Veldhuis September 11, 2016 at 10:54 pm Hahaha, same here, while using Windows for the past 20+ years In past 10+ years, I never had my AM staying malware to be found.
I never had to reinstall because of any issues (e.g. Stability or performance). But yes,if you behave like an ignorant user, click all links in phishing mails while logged on as Admin, you deserve to be punished. Run all your programs as admin/root on a non-Windows system, while clicking all links in unsolicited email, and executing random binaries you find from random ‘freeware’ sites, and let me know if you got ‘infected’. I can even tel that I do not know any Windows users personally who have been infected by malware in past 5 to 10 years. This while fast majority do not use 3rd party AM solution nor any other 3rd party security products.
They rely on built in firewall, smart screen filter and AM solution. You’re aware 98% of all Windows malware doesn’t run when user isn’t Admin? Besides the initial install&config, people almost never need admi creds on the system.
Eric August 27, 2016 at 1:15 pm Why do you separate into different windows versions (7, 8, Vista etc.) and do not do the same wit the different OS X versions? Counted together the ratio would be Windows: 972, OS X: 384 and older Windows systems not even counted in.
Since OS X was started in 2001 there are some Windows systems missing in the list like ME, XP, Win Server 2000, what would be the real ratio then? Apart from the quantities, is there any information about the qualities of vulnerabilities? Vladimir Ceric August 28, 2016 at 7:52 pm Hi Eric. In this particular article we didn’t go into qualitative research, but only quantitative; this may be a topic for a future article, or maybe next year’s analysis.
If you’re interested into a more detailed insight into vulnerabilities of different vendors, you can take a look at the stats on the CVE website. For instance, you can compare by vendor if comparing these two pages of Apple and Microsoft , and if you’re interested in vulnerability count of individual versions of OS X, you can find this information here. Sean M September 1, 2016 at 5:10 pm Eric, I don’t think just adding up the vulnerabilities between different versions of windows is the right solution either.
Since backwards compatibility is so prevalent in windows I’m assuming most vulnerabilities in one version also affect the others, and therefore most windows Vista/7/8 vulnerabilities just also get patched (with the same fix) in 8.1. In other words, most of the vulnerabilities in each version are the same problem and the same fix, but counted once per version it deploys on, but the real windows total might only be something like “175 unique vulnerabilities across all versions”.
By , macOS is generally believed to be bulletproof against malware attacks. Unfortunately, statistics reveal a different picture where Apple’s operating system is often found vulnerable. For instance, in 2017 security researchers detected an increase of 28.83 percent of total reported security flaws in comparison with 2016. And even though the total number of vulnerabilities is lower in 2018 than in the two previous years, the number of active malware campaigns against Macs is growing.
Macs are frequently endangered by potentially unwanted programs such as. That drop Trojans like OSX.Calisto and worms like Backdoor:OSX/Iworm.
Why is it crucial to pay attention to the vulnerabilities in macOS, and Apple’s software in general? If vulnerabilities have been exposed in any operating system, the system becomes susceptible to malware attacks. And as it turns out, macOS is not an exclusion and does contain security flaws. Code Execution Vulnerabilities Let’s take code execution vulnerabilities that have been increasing in macOS – they can be triggered remotely and can be used in various malicious scenarios. This type of security flaw is favored by threat actors because it allows them to bypass authentication and run any type of code.
This can happen covertly, without the user’s knowledge. Such a vulnerability was discovered in Xcode for macOS High Sierra in June this year. Not surprisingly, the flaw could allow for arbitrary code execution, CIS security researchers. What is Xcode? It is an integrated development environment that contains a suite of software development tools created by Apple. In case of exploit, this vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution within the application. As a result, the attacker could gain the same privileges as the logged-in user.
Security restrictions could also be bypassed easily. Depending on the level of privileges, the attacker could install programs, tamper with data on the device, and create new accounts with full user rights. Data Theft Vulnerabilities Security firm F-Secure recently unveiled a dangerous firmware exploit that affected almost all Mac and Windows laptops and desktop computers. This vulnerability could lead to data theft, and even left Macs with FileVault turned on susceptible, TechCrunch reported. The firmware exploit stemmed from the way almost any Mac or Windows machine overwrite data when they are turned off. The vulnerability was based on the so-called cold boot attack where threat actors could harvest data from a turned-off computer.
The issue was discovered by F-Secure researchers Olle Segerdahl and Pasi Saarinen. Even though the vulnerability required physical access to leverage it, it shouldn’t be overlooked. At the very least, this exploit shows that both Microsoft and Apple’s operating systems have similar problems, despite the widely marketed belief that one is more secure than the other. MacOS Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In August, 2018, the well-known security researcher Patrick Wardle uncovered a zero-day in Apple software just by altering a few lines of code. A demonstration during the Defcon conference in Las Vegas showed that this vulnerability can be easily used by threat actors in malware operations. The vulnerability is classified as a shortcoming of the operating system’s design and tracked in the CVE-2017-7150 advisory.
The zero-day is triggered by abusing the user interface via a novel technique that generates “synthetic clicks” emulating user behaviour. This allows threat actors to automatically bypass notification and warning prompts by fooling the system. Instead of emulating mouse movement itself (which has already been used in previous malware), this technique relies on a feature called mouse keys, which converts keyboard interaction into mouse actions.
This is triggered by pressing specific keys on the keyboard which in turn are interpreted by the operating system as mouse presses, and accepted as regular user movements thus passing through security alerts. Here’s the official description of the vulnerability: An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. MacOS before 10.13 Supplemental Update is affected.
The issue involves the “Security” component. It allows attackers to bypass the keychain access prompt, and consequently extract passwords, via a synthetic click. Denial-of-service Vulnerabilities Multiple security vulnerabilities were reported in Apple macOS/OS X in June 2018.
As explained in the, “an issue was discovered in certain Apple products. IOS before 11.4 is affected. MacOS before 10.13.5 is affected. TvOS before 11.4 is affected. WatchOS before 4.3.1 is affected”. It appears that the issues involve the pktmnglripfilterinput in com.apple.packet-mangler in the “Kernel” component. A remote attacker could be able to execute arbitrary code in a privileged content or cause a denial-of-service condition with the help of a specially crafted app.
Security restrictions could also be bypassed. It should be noted that the security score for this set of flaws is quite high – 9.3. Kernel Level Memory Corruption Vulnerabilities Just last month Trustwave SpiderLabs security researchers uncovered a Webroot SecureAnywhere vulnerability that could allow threat actors to run malicious code in local kernel mode code. The vulnerability is assigned the CVE-2018-16962 advisory and is dubbed “ Webroot SecureAnywhere macOS Kernel Level Memory Corruption.” In technical terms, the vulnerability arms a threat actor with a write-what-where kernel gadget with the caveat that the original value of the memory referenced by the pointer must be equal to (int) -1, Trustwave. The vulnerability was local, meaning that attacks had to be based on executing malicious code on the system, or social engineering tactics had to be deployed to trick users into running the exploit. This makes the exploit more complex and time-consuming for attackers, but it still is a potential threat to macOS users.