Microsoft has worked a lot to make Windows 8 and 8.1 more secure, but according to a new research rolled out by Secunia today, Windows vulnerabilities doubled last year, and the modern OS version was the most vulnerable of all editions still supported right now.
The security company found more than 350 vulnerabilities in Windows XP, 7, and 8 in 2013, with statistics confirming that, despite all improvements made by Microsoft, the final numbers doubled compared to 2012 figures.
Overall, Windows 7 had a total of 102 vulnerabilities, up from 50 in 2012, while Windows XP, which is said to become a very unsecure platform in just one month, had only 99 security flaws, an increase from 49 the year before.
Windows 8, on the other hand, was pretty much the most vulnerable Windows version still supported by Microsoft, with Secunia pointing to a total of 156 glitches found in this particular build.
And still, the platform itself is not at fault, Secunia said, as the integration of Adobe’s Flash Player in Internet Explorer was the main reason why so many flaws have been reported in Windows 8.
Internet Explorer 10, which is the default browser in Windows 8, comes with built-in Flash Player support, which means that Microsoft needs to work with Adobe and patch the browser itself whenever a flaw is found in the application. Fixes are often delivered on Patch Tuesday, along with other improvements for Microsoft products.
An overall chart that comprises vulnerabilities in the operating system, Microsoft programs, and third-party applications shows that all Windows versions still supported by the company had more than 1,200 security flaws last year, with Windows 8 again the leader, with 1,261 records.Of course, even though so many vulnerabilities have been reported in Windows operating system, this doesn’t necessarily mean that users were open to attacks or some have fallen victims to hackers.
In fact, Microsoft has until now managed to deal with all these security glitches pretty decently, with only a limited number of exploits found out there in the wild and obviously a reduced number of users getting hacked until the company actually shipped the patches to users.
Windows 8 continues to be the most secure OS version to date and, with Windows XP’s end of support quickly approaching, there’s no doubt that all users need to reconsider their options and pick their next OS version as soon as possible.