Together, RCE, authentication bypass, and local privilege escalation account for 78% of real-world exploited vulnerabilities, the post said. Windows ranks as the most affected platform among exploited CVEs in Microsoft’s data.
Prioritizing by exposure
A vulnerability’s value to an attacker depends on its impact and its exposure, according to Microsoft. Impact is what successful exploitation delivers. Exposure is the identities, privileges, and network connections reachable from the compromised asset.
Servers frequently run service accounts, application identities, or cloud-managed identities with more permissions than they need, the post noted. Taking over one of them can open paths to sensitive data, administrative rights, and trusted networks.
