- Google tracked 90 zero-day exploits in 2025
- Enterprise systems increasingly target browsers
- AI is expected to accelerate attack and defense cycles
The Google Threat Intelligence Team (GTIG) tracked and helped patch 90 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in real-world attacks by 2025, a new report has noted.
While this number is certainly worrisome, Google hints that it could get even bigger in the coming years, all thanks to AI.
In its report, GTIG said the 2025 volume is lower than the record setting in 2023, when the company fixed exactly 100 zero days – but it is higher than the 78 failures in 2024, leading the experts to suggest a “tendency to stabilize at these levels”.
AI on both sides
While the number of patched zero-day malware has been somewhat constant over the past half-decade, GTIG’s report suggests that things are rapidly changing. For example, there is a “structural shift” that began to happen in 2024, towards increased corporate utilization.
In both raw numbers (43) and share (48%), the number of vulnerabilities plaguing enterprise technology broke records and now account for nearly half of all zero-days exploited last year. “We observed a sustained decline in browser-based exploit detections, which fell to historic lows, while we saw increased exploitation of operating system vulnerabilities,” the researchers added.
In addition to OS flaws, criminals continue to target network and security appliances, mostly for initial access.
Another major structural shift currently taking place is the deployment of artificial intelligence on both sides of the cybersecurity space. Google expects attackers to use artificial intelligence to automate and scale attacks by “accelerating reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery and exploit development”. As attackers move faster through these phases, defenders will have to adjust or face the consequences.
This alignment will include tools such as agent solutions that can proactively detect and help fix previously unknown security flaws.
“Defenders should prepare for when, not if, a compromise occurs,” Google said, sharing a non-comprehensive set of approaches and guidelines for defending against zero-day exploits.
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