This Google Threat Intelligence Group report presents an analysis of detected 2024 zero-day exploits.
Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) tracked 75 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild in 2024, a decrease from the number we identified in 2023 (98 vulnerabilities), but still an increase from 2022 (63 vulnerabilities). We divided the reviewed vulnerabilities into two main categories: end-user platforms and products (e.g., mobile devices, operating systems, and browsers) and enterprise-focused technologies, such as security software and appliances.
Vendors continue to drive improvements that make some zero-day exploitation harder, demonstrated by both dwindling numbers across multiple categories and reduced observed attacks against previously popular targets. At the same time, commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) appear to be increasing their operational security practices, potentially leading to decreased attribution and detection.
We see zero-day exploitation targeting a greater number and wider variety of enterprise-specific technologies, although these technologies still remain a smaller proportion of overall exploitation when compared to end-user technologies. While the historic focus on the exploitation of popular end-user technologies and their users continues, the shift toward increased targeting of enterprise-focused products will require a wider and more diverse set of vendors to increase proactive security measures in order to reduce future zero-day exploitation attempts.
A threat actor claims to offer a zero-day exploit for an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Fortinet firewalls.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) have discovered post-compromise exploitation of a zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) against a small number of targets. The targets include organizations in the information technology (IT) and real estate sectors of the United States, the financial sector in Venezuela, a Spanish software company, and the retail sector in Saudi Arabia. Microsoft released security updates to address the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-29824, on April 8, 2025.
In a first-of-its-kind report, the US government has revealed that it disclosed 39 zero-day software vulnerabilities to vendors or the public in 2023 for the purpose of getting the vulnerabilities patched or mitigated, as opposed to retaining them to use in hacking operations.
It’s the first time the government has revealed specific numbers about its controversial Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP) — the process it uses to adjudicate decisions about whether zero-day vulnerabilities it discovers should be kept secret so law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and the military can exploit them in hacking operations or be disclosed to vendors to fix them. Zero-day vulnerabilities are security holes in software that are unknown to the software maker and are therefore unpatched at the time of discovery, making systems that use the software at risk of being hacked by anyone who discovers the flaw.
After identifying a significant overlap between IPs exploiting CVE-2024-40891 and those classified as Mirai, the team investigated a recent variant of Mirai and confirmed that the ability to exploit CVE-2024-40891 has been incorporated into some Mirai strains.
GreyNoise is observing active exploitation attempts targeting a zero-day critical command injection vulnerability in Zyxel CPE Series devices tracked as CVE-2024-40891. At this time, the vulnerability is not patched, nor has it been publicly disclosed. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands on affected devices, leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or network infiltration. At publication, Censys is reporting over 1,500 vulnerable devices online.
On Wednesday, January 8, 2025, Ivanti disclosed two CVEs affecting Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and Neurons for ZTA gateways. CVE-2025-0282 is a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability that allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to execute code on the target device. CVE-2025-0283 is a stack-based buffer overflow that allows local authenticated attackers to escalate privileges on the device.
In 2023, malicious cyber actors exploited more zero-day vulnerabilities to compromise enterprise networks compared to 2022, allowing them to conduct cyber operations against higher-priority targets. In 2023, the majority of the most frequently exploited vulnerabilities were initially exploited as a zero-day, which is an increase from 2022, when less than half of the top exploited vulnerabilities were exploited as a zero-day.
Malicious cyber actors continue to have the most success exploiting vulnerabilities within two years after public disclosure of the vulnerability. The utility of these vulnerabilities declines over time as more systems are patched or replaced. Malicious cyber actors find less utility from zero-day exploits when international cybersecurity efforts reduce the lifespan of zero-day vulnerabilities.
On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, security company Fortinet published an advisory on CVE-2024-47575, a critical zero-day vulnerability affecting their FortiManager network management solution. The vulnerability arises from a missing authentication for a critical function [CWE-306] in the FortiManager fgfmd daemon that allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code or commands via specially crafted requests. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3 score of 9.8.
Microsoft on Tuesday raised an alarm for in-the-wild exploitation of a critical flaw in Windows Update, warning that attackers are rolling back security fixes on certain versions of its flagship operating system.
The Akamai Security Intelligence and Response Team (SIRT) has observed a botnet campaign that is abusing several previously exploited vulnerabilities, as well as a zero-day vulnerability discovered by the SIRT.
CVE-2024-7029 (discovered by Aline Eliovich) is a command injection vulnerability found in the brightness function of AVTECH closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras that allows for remote code execution (RCE).
Once injected, the botnet spreads a Mirai variant with string names that reference the COVID-19 virus that has been seen since at least 2020.
We have included a list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) to assist in defense against this threat.
Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Versa Director, a software product used by many Internet and IT service providers. Researchers believe the activity is linked to Volt Typhoon, a Chinese cyber espionage group focused on infiltrating critical U.S.…