Apple products’ vulnerabilities surge by over 450%

According to the findings by the Atlas VPN team, Apple product’s vulnerabilities surged by 467% in 2021 H2. Furthermore, Google and Microsoft products accumulated the most vulnerabilities in the second half of 2021.

Apple Vulnerabilities

Google accumulated 511 vulnerabilities in the second half of 2021. Google products such as the Android operating system and Chrome browser are used by billions of people worldwide. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in such products so that more users would be affected.

Microsoft products were second in terms of vulnerabilities with 428. Most of the vulnerabilities are found in Windows OS versions, Office tools, and the Microsoft Edge browser.

Apple software vulnerabilities surged by 467% in H2 2021 to 380 exploits. Cybercriminals find the most exploits on Safari browser and operating systems on various Apple products. Due to all Apple software being interchangeable and connected, one found vulnerability can usually affect all devices.

Oracle products accumulated 258 vulnerabilities in the second half of 2021. At the same time, the Chinese telecommunications equipment company Huawei gathered 201 vulnerabilities, almost an 814% increase compared to H1.

Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN Vilius Kardelis shares his thoughts on vulnerability threats:

“Products owned by tech giants such as Apple or Google are used by billions of people worldwide. That makes billions of users vulnerable to exploits found by cybercriminals. To stay away from such threats and keep your devices safe, people should always update their software to the latest version.”

Vulnerability levels

Exploits that are simple to perform and can do the most harm to the victims are rated higher on the risk level.

National Vulnerability Database (NVD) evaluated 1,079 vulnerabilities with a risk level of 10 in the second half of 2021. NVD issued risk levels 9 to 1,173 vulnerabilities. Risk level 8 vulnerabilities were the most common, with 2,582 recorded flaws. Following up, NVD evaluated 693 vulnerabilities at risk level 7.

An exploit, CVE-2021-30858, rated 8.8, targets iPhones and iPads with the 14.8 iOS version and Macs with macOS Big Sur 11.6. The vulnerability allows the threat actor to execute an arbitrary code, enabling the installation of malware or other actions on a vulnerable Apple device.

The most harmful vulnerability from 2021 was CVE-2021-44228, better known as the Apache Log4j vulnerability.