Microsoft issued patches for a record 570 security vulnerabilities on Tuesday, July 15, 2026, as part of its monthly “Patch Tuesday” release — the largest such update the company has produced. Microsoft attributed the high volume to its use of artificial intelligence to help employees uncover previously undiscovered bugs across Windows, Office, and other product lines.
At least two of the vulnerabilities are classified as zero-days, meaning they were actively exploited before Microsoft became aware of them. One affects Windows Server and allows attackers to escalate their access from a limited user account to full system administrator privileges. The other affects SharePoint, Microsoft’s file-sharing server. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned that hackers were actively exploiting the SharePoint flaw to compromise organizations.
The record patch count follows a blog post Microsoft published a week earlier, in which the company said its monthly security updates would be higher in number going forward. Pavan Davuluri, the head of Windows, explained the reasoning: “As AI helps defenders discover more issues, customers will see a higher volume of security updates included in each security release.”
Security researchers are increasingly using AI models to surface vulnerabilities that may have remained dormant in software code for years. Microsoft noted that parts of its Windows codebase date back decades, suggesting the technology could help surface long-standing issues that traditional review methods may have missed.
The update was first reported by Krebs on Security. For users and organizations running Microsoft products, the scale of this release suggests that keeping systems patched and up to date may carry greater urgency as AI-assisted discovery continues to raise the volume of identified flaws.
Source: TechCrunch