Microsoft has updated its software to address 972 vulnerabilities, including 112 critical ones. If Chromium-based Edge fixes are included, the total number of vulnerabilities patched reaches 997. This follows a recent trend of record-breaking patch releases from Microsoft and other tech giants like Google.
The company has fixed 2,760 vulnerabilities so far this year, which is more than double the number of bugs addressed in the previous year. Projections indicate that Microsoft will likely exceed the total number of bugs fixed in 2023, 2024, and 2025 combined by the end of the current year.
This month's update includes fixes for two zero-day vulnerabilities: CVE-2026-81963 in the Windows update service and CVE-2026-85880 in the Windows Advanced Local Procedure. Additionally, Dustin Childs from the Zero Day Initiative noted that there are more than 20 wormable vulnerabilities in the release, which can spread automatically between machines without user interaction.
The surge in vulnerability discovery is attributed to the AI-assisted hunting of bugs. An open letter from OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, and Google, along with 100 other organizations, warned of a narrowing window for patching before AI-enabled attacks occur. Mozilla's use of Mythos has already shown results, with 271 vulnerabilities found by researchers in May.