While elevated privilege attacks remain a critical security concern when using Microsoft products, a new report says that the raw number of vulnerabilities is dropping. Credit: Martyn Williams/IDG The total number of Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2021 dropped by 5%, reversing a five-year trend that saw such vulnerabilities rising sharply, according to a new report from identity management and security vendor BeyondTrust.A total of 1,212 new vulnerabilities were discovered in 2021, but their severity, as well as their location in the Microsoft family of software products, has changed substantially year over year. Vulnerabilities rated as “critical” on the CVSS standard dropped by 47% in the past year, reaching their lowest levels since BeyondTrust began issuing this report, nine years ago.Vulnerabilities on Windows, Windows Server dropWindows and Windows Server both saw sharp drops in total vulnerabilities detected, by 40% and 50%, respectively, while vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft’s Edge and Internet Explorer browsers hit a record high. Assisting in the latest analysis is Microsoft’s move to NIST’s common vulnerability scoring system, which lets researchers cross-reference security flaws more directly with bugs in the outside ecosystem. The most common type of vulnerability seen in 2021 involved privilege elevation, where an attacker gains admin rights to a system through illicit means. A total of 588 such vulnerabilities were discovered in 2021. BeyondTrust’s researchers credit a more widespread adherence to good security practices for this rise — perversely, a general decrease in users with unnecessary admin privileges helped focus bad actors’ efforts on attempts to gain elevated privileges in different ways.Attackers innovate to gain admin rights“Without easy access to users with local admin rights, attackers have started to innovate to gain elevated privileges that can then be used to compromise systems, steal credentials, and move laterally,” the report said. The second-most common type of vulnerability centered on remote code execution, which is particularly dangerous since attacks targeting such flaws can be conducted remotely, with little or no user interaction required. A total of 326 of these vulnerabilities were found in 2021, 35 of which rated a 9.0 or higher on the CVSS scale.“With this type of risk, a workable exploit is not a matter of ‘does an exploit exist,’ but rather ‘when will it be publicly available,'” said the BeyondTrust report.The report also broke out vulnerabilities in key Microsoft products, including Azure, Windows and Microsoft Office. The latter saw just one critical vulnerability, compared to a total of 66 found in 2021, while the same numbers for Azure and Dynamics 365 were seven and 44, respectively.BeyondTrust’s researchers praised Microsoft’s consistent efforts to keep Azure safe, and lauded a “steady decline” in Office vulnerabilities. Similarly, the Windows operating system itself saw a 40% drop in total vulnerabilities in 2021 compared to the previous year, with a 50% drop in critical security flaws. Related content news Top cybersecurity product news of the week New product and service announcements from Bedrock Security, GitGuardian, Legit Security, Nametag, and Cybereason and Observe By CSO staff Mar 29, 2024 70 mins Generative AI Security news analysis Thousands of servers hacked due to insecurely deployed Ray AI framework Ray deployments are not intended to connect to the internet, but AI developers are doing so anyway and leaving their servers vulnerable. By Lucian Constantin Mar 28, 2024 4 mins Vulnerabilities news Cisco: Security teams are ‘overconfident’ about handling next-gen threats Tooling complexity and generative AI may harm many companies’ security posture. By Jon Gold Mar 28, 2024 3 mins Security brandpost Sponsored by Microsoft Security Iran’s evolving influence operations and cyberattacks support Hamas Understanding how Iranian and Iran-affiliated threats traverse 3 distinct phases may help identify vulnerabilities and attack vectors. By Microsoft Security Mar 28, 2024 5 mins Security PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe