Google: Vulnerability disclosures double to 10,000 per month as AI fuels exploitation
Google says vulnerability disclosures doubled to 10,740 a month as AI accelerates n-day exploitation.
Google’s Threat Intelligence Group said vulnerability disclosures rose from 5,045 in January to a peak of 10,740 in August, with July and August both above 10,000. GTIG counted 141 exploited vulnerabilities so far in 2026, versus 127 in all of 2025, and attributed the rise mainly to rapid weaponization of patched n-days rather than new zero-days. CVE-2026-1731 in BeyondTrust software, found by the Hacktron AI research agent, was exploited by one threat cluster within four days of disclosure and five more within seven days, with privilege escalation, data exfiltration, and payloads including SNOWLIGHT, SPARKRAT, and cryptominers. Fourteen percent of vulnerabilities exploited from January through August affected edge and security appliances.