Security Teams Urged to Center Defense on the Flaw Profile Attackers Target Most
CSO, Thursday, October 22nd, 2026
Rapid7 data shows attackers concentrate on a narrow set of critical flaws, so defenders should prioritize that profile over raw CVE counts.
Rapid7's quarterly threat report found 43 newly exploited vulnerabilities in Q3 2026, up 19% year on year, while high-severity CVEs rose 133% and public proof-of-concept code about 86%.
Rapid7's Douglas McKee says the pool of exploitable bugs is growing far faster than the set attackers actually use.
Underground forum chatter mostly repackages flaws already in vendor advisories or CISA's KEV catalog within days, rather than novel zero-days.
The advice is to focus remediation on the profile attackers favor, such as internet-facing critical bugs with public exploits, instead of chasing every new CVE.