The 2025 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report: What Houston SMBs Need to Know

Record-Breaking Numbers, Evolving Threats, and Practical Security Strategies for Your Business

The freshly released BeyondTrust 2025 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report has landed on my desk, and as someone who’s spent decades providing computer support services and helping small and medium businesses navigate technical waters, I’m breaking down what you need to know.

 Key Findings: Breaking Records (And Not in a Good Way)

2024 set a new record with a staggering 1,360 Microsoft vulnerabilities, an 11% increase over the previous record of 1,292 in 2022. When we analyze this data, a concerning pattern emerges – Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities accounted for 40% (554) of all reported vulnerabilities.

Think of EoP vulnerabilities like giving a visitor access to your executive suite when they should only have lobby privileges – they represent a serious security risk that attackers actively target.

While the total number is concerning, there’s a silver lining – critical vulnerabilities across the Microsoft ecosystem continue to trend downward, dropping to 78 in 2024 compared to 84 in 2023. However, this positive trend wasn’t universal across all products (more on specific products later). (Source: BeyonTrust 2025 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report)

 Data Highlights: The Numbers That Matter

Let’s dig into the specifics:

• Total vulnerabilities hit an all-time high of 1,360 in 2024
• Elevation of Privilege vulnerabilities made up 40% (554) of all reported vulnerabilities
• Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities increased by 22% to 435 in 2024
• Security Feature Bypass vulnerabilities surged by 60%, increasing from 56 in 2023 to 90 in 2024
• Microsoft Edge experienced a 17% increase to 292 vulnerabilities, including 9 critical (up from zero in 2022)
• Windows had 587 vulnerabilities in 2024; 33 were critical
• Windows Server had 684 vulnerabilities; 43 were critical
• Microsoft Office vulnerabilities nearly doubled from 2023, reaching 62 in 2024

The sheer volume of these numbers might seem overwhelming, but don’t panic. Understanding these trends helps us target our security efforts where they matter most. This is exactly why small business IT support near me has become increasingly important – these threats aren’t just targeting enterprise organizations.

 How Microsoft Classifies Critical Vulnerabilities

Not all vulnerabilities pose the same level of risk. Microsoft uses its own Security Update Severity Rating System to classify vulnerabilities based on their potential impact:

• Critical: Vulnerabilities that could allow code execution without user interaction. These are the most dangerous and require immediate attention.
• Important: Vulnerabilities that could compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability of user data.
• Moderate: Vulnerabilities where impact is mitigated by factors like authentication requirements.
• Low: Vulnerabilities where impact is comprehensively mitigated by the characteristics of the affected component.

This classification system differs from the National Vulnerabilities Database (NVD) Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), which classifies critical vulnerabilities as those with scores between 9.0-10.0.

While 39 Microsoft vulnerabilities from 2024 scored a 9.0 or above under the NVD system (making them “critical”), Microsoft classified 78 of its vulnerabilities as critical using its own system.

For business owners seeking IT support for small businesses near me, Microsoft’s severity rating system provides more practical guidance than CVSS scores alone, as it focuses on real-world impact rather than just technical severity.

(Source: BeyonTrust 2025 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report)

 5-Year Trend: The Big Picture

When we zoom out and look at the 5-year trend, we see that total vulnerabilities have maintained relative stability, hovering around the 1,200 mark before this year’s jump to 1,360.

If we go back further and look at the full 12-year span of this report, we can see that the rapid growth in vulnerabilities we saw before 2020 has leveled off somewhat. One interpretation is that Microsoft’s increased focus on security through their Secure Future Initiative may be helping them proactively identify and address vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.

The most encouraging long-term trend is the steady decline in critical vulnerabilities. In 2013, a shocking 44% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities were critical. That figure is now down to just 5.74%. This suggests that Microsoft’s security investments are paying off where it matters most. Even so, businesses still need cybersecurity near me solutions to stay protected.

 Vulnerabilities by Category: Know Your Enemy

Understanding which types of vulnerabilities are most common helps us focus our defenses. For the fifth consecutive year, Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities claimed the top spot, followed by Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities.

These two categories represent the primary goals of any threat actor:

1. Getting their malicious code to execute on your systems (RCE)
2. Gaining the privileges needed to achieve their objectives (EoP)

While EoP vulnerabilities increased by 13% year-over-year, the 5-year trend shows they remain below their 2022 peak. RCE vulnerabilities, meanwhile, continue their steady climb, increasing by 22% to 435 in 2024.

One of the more concerning trends is the rise in Security Feature Bypass vulnerabilities, which have tripled from 30 in 2020 to 90 in 2025. These vulnerabilities allow attackers to circumvent security features like the Mark of the Web, which normally identifies files downloaded from the internet as potentially unsafe. For small business cybersecurity near me, these types of attacks can be particularly dangerous as smaller organizations often lack the robust security monitoring of larger enterprises.

 Vulnerabilities by Product: Where the Weak Points Are

Microsoft Edge: Living on the Edge

After years of improvement following Microsoft’s switch to the Chromium engine, Edge saw a concerning reversal in 2024. Vulnerabilities increased by 17%, rising from 249 to 292, with critical vulnerabilities jumping from zero in 2022 to nine in 2024.

As the primary way your employees interact with web content, browsers represent a significant attack vector. The most severe Edge vulnerabilities allow attackers to break free from the browser’s security sandbox and execute code with the same privileges as the logged-in user. If that user has administrator rights, the attacker gains those rights too – highlighting why least privilege principles are so important.

Windows: The Core of Your Business

Windows vulnerabilities increased by 12% in 2024, rising from 522 to 587. The good news is that critical vulnerabilities continued their downward trend, dropping by 40% from 55 to 33.

Windows Server vulnerabilities also continued their upward trend, with a 16% increase pushing the total to 684. Critical vulnerabilities, however, decreased from 57 in 2023 to 43 in 2024.

One challenge with Windows is its legacy codebase. Parts of Windows 11 still contain 20+ year old code, creating what security professionals call “security debt.” In 2024, attackers found ways to exploit legacy Internet Explorer components to hide malicious file extensions and trick users into running harmful files. That’s where managed IT support near me becomes critical – keeping systems updated and properly configured.

Microsoft Office: The Daily Driver

After a concerning increase in 2023, Microsoft Office vulnerabilities returned to a downward trend, dropping from 62 total vulnerabilities in 2023 to 47 in 2024 (a 24% decrease).

Microsoft Office used to be a major security pain point, with malicious documents exploiting vulnerabilities or tricking users into enabling macros. Microsoft has clearly invested in improving Office security, and those investments are paying off.

(Source: BeyonTrust 2025 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report)

 What This Means for Your Business

After analyzing these findings, three fundamental truths about cybersecurity become clear:

1. Software vulnerabilities are inevitable – they’re part of doing business in the digital age
2. Enforcing least privilege principles remains one of the most effective strategies to reduce risk
3. Defense-in-depth strategies that combine prevention, detection, and response offer the strongest protection

How CinchOps Can Help Secure Your Business

At CinchOps, we’ve spent decades providing managed IT Houston and managed IT Katy services, helping Texas businesses like yours navigate these security challenges with practical, efficient solutions:

1. Vulnerability Management: We implement tailored patching strategies that prioritize critical vulnerabilities based on your specific business context, not just generic severity ratings.
2. Least Privilege Implementation: We reduce your attack surface by ensuring users and systems operate with only the permissions they need to do their jobs – not admin rights by default.
3. Endpoint Protection: We deploy and manage advanced endpoint security solutions that protect against the latest threats, including those targeting Microsoft products.
4. Security Monitoring: We provide 24/7 monitoring of your systems to detect and respond to potential security incidents before they become major breaches.
5. User Training: We help educate your team on security best practices, reducing the risk of social engineering attacks that exploit vulnerabilities.

Remember, patching alone isn’t enough – you need comprehensive computer security solutions that account for the inevitable delay between vulnerability discovery and patch deployment.

With 30+ years of experience providing managed IT near me services to Texas businesses, we understand that security solutions need to be practical, efficient, and aligned with your business operations. We won’t recommend complex solutions that slow down your team or break your budget.

Ready to strengthen your Microsoft security posture? Let’s talk about how CinchOps can help protect your business against these evolving threats. After all, in the world of cybersecurity, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – and a whole lot less expensive than a data breach. For the best managed IT support near me, contact CinchOps today

 Discover More 

Discover more about our enterprise-grade and business protecting cybersecurity services: CinchOps Cybersecurity
Discover related topics: The State of Patch Management in 2025
For Additional Information on this topic, check out: Report reveals record-breaking year for Microsoft vulnerabilities

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