Critical Software Vulnerabilities Rose 37% in 2024

A recent software vulnerability report by Action1 found a 61% year-over-year surge in discovered software vulnerabilities and a 96% spike in exploited vulnerabilities throughout 2024. The total number of software vulnerabilities grew by 61% YoY in 2024, with critical vulnerabilities rising by 37.1% — a significant expansion of the global attack surface and exposure of critical weaknesses across diverse software categories.

The number of known exploited vulnerabilities rose by 96% in 2024, signaling a critical escalation in threat actor activity and widespread real-world exploitation. Linux vulnerabilities soared by 967% and macOS vulnerabilities by 95% in 2024, indicating increased attacker focus on UNIX-based systems due to these sharp increases. Exploits spiked 657% in browsers and 433% in Microsoft Office, with Chrome leading all products in known attacks.

Read the report.