In September, Microsoft released fixes for 999 vulnerabilities, making it one of the largest batches of fixes the company has ever issued. Out of these 999 patches, 723 vulnerabilities have been reportedly patched on Windows alone. For Office and Office 2016, about 111 fixes were released, while SQL Server received 62. Third-party projects received an additional 25 fixes. However, the majority of the focus was on Windows, where two vulnerabilities with very high severity were addressed. Microsoft confirmed that these were being actively exploited to unlock local privileges and allow code and program execution without any issues. These vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-81963 and CVE-2026-85880, have now been patched.

As readers may recall, Microsoft is working on expanding its memory integrity protection feature across its global Windows 11 installations, with the rollout beginning in October. For those unaware, memory integrity protection enhances operating system security at the kernel level, safeguarding it from sophisticated attacks by malicious actors. Using Virtualization-based Security (VBS), the OS employs hardware virtualization to create Windows hypervisors that dedicate isolated virtual environments. The OS always operates under the assumption that the kernel can be compromised.[](https://www.techpowerup.com/img/i0JO5X3KiXphMfC7.jpg)Read full story