Google: Majority of zero-day flaws exploited in 2022 were in Microsoft, Google and Apple products: Report – Times of India

Researchers from information security company Mandiant have found that in 2022, hackers majorly exploited zero-day vulnerabilities found in products offered by Microsoft, Google and Apple. They said that the most exploited product types were operating systems (19), followed by browsers (11), security, IT, and network management products (10), and mobile OS (six).
According to a report by information security company Mandiant, a Google-owned company, researchers tracked 55 zero-day vulnerabilities in 2022. Zero-day vulnerabilities are security flaws in software that are publicly disclosed/ exploited before it becomes known to the company responsible for its patching.
It is for this reason that hackers make the most of these vulnerabilities because there are no protections or firewalls in place to mitigate the attack.
Which company was hit the most
Researchers said that hackers exploited 18 zero-day vulnerabilities in products by Microsoft, 10 in Google, 9 in Apple, and 18 in others.
“The technologies most frequently affected by zero-days in 2022 reflect a similar distribution as years prior and again overwhelmingly focus on the three largest vendors whose technology is widely adopted across the world. Microsoft (18), Google (10), and Apple (9) were the most commonly exploited vendors for the third year in a row,” Mandiant said.
Which product type was exploited the most
The most exploited products were operating systems (OS) (19), followed by browsers (11), security, IT, and network management products (10), and mobile OS (6).

Desktop operating systems were exploited the most with 19 zero vulnerabilities. Windows had 15 zero-day flaws, followed by macOS with four.
In the case of mobile OS, out of six zero-day vulnerabilities, five were exploited in iOS and one in Android.
When it comes to web browsers, Chrome was most exploited with nine zero-day vulnerabilities (out of 11), compared to Firefox’s two.
China lead zero-day exploitation list
The report said that the Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage groups exploited most zero-day vulnerabilities in 2022, which is consistent with the previous years. China was followed by North Korean and Russian cyber espionage actors.
In 2022, Chinese espionage groups exploited seven zero-day vulnerabilities and two each by North Korean and Russian actors.