Most vulnerable operating systems & applications in 2014

Corrine · Feb 22, 2015

The leader of the OS with the most vulnerabilities in 2014 may come as a surprise to some, although this shouldn't:

Third-party applications are the most important source of vulnerabilities with over 80% of the reported vulnerabilities in third-party applications. Operating systems are only responsible for 13% of vulnerabilities and hardware devices for 4%.

Top operating systems by vulnerabilities reported in 2014

No, you aren't misreading the chart. It is interesting that although Microsoft operating systems still have a considerable number of vulnerabilities, they are no longer in the top 3. Mac is at the top of the list, followed by iOS, Linux kernel and then Microsoft operating systems.

Top applications by vulnerabilities reported in 2014

Yes, IE is at the top of the application list. With Pale Moon previously based on Firefox ESR and not incorporating the changes for recent FF changes, I'm happy with my browser of choice.

More at the source: Most vulnerable operating systems and applications in 2014

blueelvis · Feb 22, 2015

Thanks Corrine. Seems like a lot of my friends would be upset when I share this since most of them are UNIX/Linux fans and bash Windows regularly.

niemiro · Feb 22, 2015

I'd like to see more of a breakdown of the IE statistics. Microsoft are continuing to release patches for IE versions as far back as 6 right now for enterprise customers as far as I'm aware and I would not consider it fair if they were including those in the count given that it's not 14 years old and 6 versions out of date. IE9 on Windows Vista is a bit more of an issue, but basically speaking I'd like to know whether they are considering vulnerabilities only in the latest versions of IE or in really old versions as well. If they recalculated for the former, the results might be very different.

Corrine · Feb 22, 2015

Valid point, Richard. I suspect the information is based on all supported versions of IE.

Search

Search

Most vulnerable operating systems & applications in 2014

Corrine

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

blueelvis

BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

niemiro

Senior Administrator, Windows Update Expert

Corrine

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Most vulnerable operating systems & applications in 2014

Corrine

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

blueelvis

BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

niemiro

Senior Administrator, Windows Update Expert

Corrine

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst