vulnerabilities
Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday update stands out for two reasons. First, the total number of patches has reached four digits for the first time. Second, to help companies better understand the details of the vulnerabilities, Microsoft has decided to group them into risk cohorts. A cohort brings together vulnerabilities that are exploited under the same conditions and affect the same systems. They replace neither the severity rating, nor the individual bulletins for each CVE. While they’re unlikely to be suitable for comprehensive patch prioritization, they will help quickly assess which part of an infrastructure is currently most at risk.
Statistics corner
Of the 1,414 vulnerabilities addressed in the October Patch Tuesday release, 1,102 directly affect the Windows operating system, 134 — Microsoft Office, 36 — SharePoint Server, 22 — SQL Server, and seven — Exchange Server. The vast majority — 677 — lead to privilege escalation, 317 to remote code execution, 40 to security bypass, and 73 to denial of service (DoS).
There are 86 critical vulnerabilities on the list, of which 68 lead to RCE, 14 to privilege escalation, three to spoofing, and one to data leakage. In addition, two vulnerabilities were disclosed before being patched, and one is being exploited in real-world attacks.
CVE-2026-96951 — vulnerability in Windows Shell
The only zero-day vulnerability patched in the October update that attackers are already exploiting in real-world attacks is CVE-2026-96951 in Windows Shell (CVSS severity score: 8.8). Details on how it’s being exploited aren’t yet known; however, according to Microsoft’s description, it involves command injection that allows bypassing a security feature when accessing the system over a network. Microsoft credits experts at both Fujitsu and Anthropic for discovering the vulnerability, so it was likely found using neural networks.
CVE-2026-108398 and CVE-2026-92707: vulnerabilities disclosed before patches were released
Information about these two vulnerabilities was made public before the October update was released. In theory, this could mean that attackers attempted to exploit them ahead of time. These are:
- CVE-2026-108398 — a vulnerability in the .NET Framework that allows bypassing WDAC protection;
- CVE-2026-92707 — a vulnerability in the third-party MessagePack-CSharp serialization component, leading to a denial of service (DoS).
However, according to the security bulletins, neither has been observed in actual attacks yet.
What else to pay attention to
Several vulnerabilities patched by the latest update combine potentially serious consequences with relatively simple exploitation. Particular attention should be paid to three flaws that could potentially lead to arbitrary code execution:
- CVE-2026-65674 (in SQL Server);
- CVE-2026-70571 (in Exchange Server);
- CVE-2026-70229 (in AD Domain Services).
What else should be patched?
Microsoft isn’t the only company that releases regular update packages for newly discovered vulnerabilities.
In its October update, Adobe fixed 174 defects in its products, including critical vulnerabilities (CVSS 10) in ColdFusion and Commerce/Magento. These systems are typically accessible from an external network, making them particularly attractive to attackers.
SAP’s October security bulletin lists 20 vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-89111 — an SSRF vulnerability in the Cloud SDK for Python. This vulnerability, rated CVSS 10, allows attackers to steal OAuth tokens.
How to keep your company safe?
Recently, thanks to neural networks, the number of vulnerabilities detected and patched has been regularly breaking records. To avoid getting overwhelmed by the flood of patches, we recommend using an automated platform for tracking and assessing vulnerabilities . It helps not only identify and fix vulnerabilities, it also prioritizes them based on actual risks and automates the remediation process.
