More than 22,000 vulnerabilities were disclosed in 2019 and over one-third had an exploit or a proof-of-concept (PoC) available, Risk Based Security revealed on Tuesday.
The company’s 2019 Year End Vulnerability QuickView Report shows that of the 22,316 new security holes 33% were rated high severity based on their CVSS score. The total number of vulnerabilities was slightly smaller compared to 2018 (23,210 vulnerabilities) and roughly the same as in 2017.
It’s worth noting that thousands of vulnerabilities disclosed last year have not been assigned CVE identifiers.
The vendors with the most disclosed vulnerabilities include Oracle, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Dell and Cisco. Some Linux distributions and open source software are also in the top 10.
A majority of vulnerabilities are disclosed on Patch Tuesday, when major vendors such as Adobe, Microsoft, Siemens and SAP release security updates for their products. The Patch Tuesday updates for August 2019 patched 327 flaws — more than on any other day — with 62% of them coming from Microsoft and Adobe.
According to Risk Based Security, 302 vulnerabilities affecting electronic voting machines (EVM) were disclosed last year and 289 of them have not been patched.
“Only 13 EVM vulnerabilities have a known solution. To make matters worse, of those, only one has a CVE ID assigned and can be found cataloged in the U.S. National Vulnerability Database” commented Brian Martin, VP of vulnerability intelligence at Risk Based Security. “EVMs with vulnerabilities have been used in past elections, and will no doubt be used again in our next elections. It doesn’t matter what politics or beliefs you subscribe to; the essence of democracy is a free, fair and secure election that captures the will of the people. The lack of visibility on this issue should be of deep concern to every American.”
Risk Based Security’s 2019 Year End Vulnerability QuickView Report is available on the company’s website in PDF format.
Related: Many ICS Vulnerability Advisories Contain Errors
Related: 92% of External Web Apps Have Exploitable Security Flaws or Weaknesses
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
More from Eduard Kovacs
- Exploitation of 55 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Came to Light in 2022: Mandiant
- Organizations Notified of Remotely Exploitable Vulnerabilities in Aveva HMI, SCADA Products
- Waterfall Security, TXOne Networks Launch New OT Security Appliances
- Hitachi Energy Blames Data Breach on Zero-Day as Ransomware Gang Threatens Firm
- New York Man Arrested for Running BreachForums Cybercrime Website
- Exploitation of Recent Fortinet Zero-Day Linked to Chinese Cyberspies
- Mozilla Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities With Release of Firefox 111
- Microsoft: 17 European Nations Targeted by Russia in 2023 as Espionage Ramping Up
Latest News
- Burnout in Cybersecurity – Can it be Prevented?
- Spain Needs More Transparency Over Pegasus: EU Lawmakers
- Ransomware Will Likely Target OT Systems in EU Transport Sector: ENISA
- Virtual Event Today: Supply Chain & Third-Party Risk Summit
- Google Suspends Chinese Shopping App Amid Security Concerns
- Verosint Launches Account Fraud Detection and Prevention Platform
- Ransomware Gang Publishes Data Allegedly Stolen From Maritime Firm Royal Dirkzwager
- Zoom Paid Out $3.9 Million in Bug Bounties in 2022
