Microsoft says vulnerability weaponization now takes well below 24 hours

Microsoft says the median time between vulnerability discovery in the wild and weaponization has fallen well below 24 hours, narrowing organizations' window to patch exposed systems. Its 2026 Digital Defense Report says attackers are benefiting from AI faster than defenders, particularly in finding vulnerabilities that security teams cannot remediate as quickly. The company reports that attackers use AI to customize malware and shorten post-compromise tasks, including data theft and movement across networks, from days to minutes. It has observed state-sponsored actors using AI for research, tooling and social engineering. Microsoft cautions that most observed campaigns still retain human direction, including target selection, decisions and complex attack tasks.