You can’t patch everything. So what do you fix first? Findings in Q2 2026 have changed traditional answers.
The latest Quarterly Threat Landscape Report from Rapid7 Labs shows vulnerability disclosures still surging while attackers use automation and AI-assisted tooling to compress the time between disclosure and exploitation. The gap that patch cycles were built to fill is closing. Speed and volume are overwhelming security teams that have relied on traditional patch cycles and reactive programs. Success going forward can’t be about patching as much as possible - it has to be about understanding what matters most and reducing the exposures attackers can actually reach.
Here are the four trends that defined Q2 2026, and what they mean for your security program as you define priorities for Q3 and beyond:
The volume of disclosures hit another milestone
There were 8,539 new high- and critical-severity CVEs (CVSS 7.0–10.0) this quarter- double the number reported in the same quarter last year (4,268). Meanwhile, the number of newly exploited vulnerabilities held roughly steady (40). The takeaway isn’t that exploitation exploded - it’s that disclosure volume is far outstripping what any team can triage.
The report breaks down which of those disclosures are actually reachable and how to triage by exploitability instead of severity score alone.Initial access keeps getting easier
Nearly two-thirds of exploited vulnerabilities this quarter (62%) required no user interaction - no stolen credentials, no phishing victim, no click. Attackers reach and exploit them on their own, and that share is up nine points year over year (from 53% in Q2 2025). Reinforcing the trend, disclosures of missing-authentication flaws (CWE-306) surged 247% year over year - a fast-expanding pool of internet-facing systems that require no login at all.
This is the quarter’s clearest signal - and the report details exactly which exposures to close first, and how, before the exploitation curve catches up.Nation-state activity remains persistent
Rapid7 observed continued activity from Iranian, North Korean, and Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) clusters targeting government, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications. Russian campaigns targeted edge infrastructure; Iranian activity included sustained industrial control system (ICS) and operational technology (OT) targeting.
The report maps the specific techniques and sectors each cluster focused on this quarter.Ransomware stays concentrated but keeps evolving
Qilin led ransomware activity in Q2 with 263 listed victims, and the United States remained the most heavily targeted country - with business services and healthcare among the hardest-hit sectors. Rapid7’s Incident Response team also saw growing use of ClickFix and fake CAPTCHA campaigns, and social engineering through trusted collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams - techniques that accounted for 31.8% of the incidents we worked.
The report includes the full ransomware leaderboard, the sectors most at risk, and where affiliate activity is expanding next.Exposure is the real challenge, and the biggest opportunity
The volume is daunting, but the real challenge is keeping pace with attackers. As disclosures keep growing, the organizations that stay ahead won’t be the ones patching fastest — they’ll be the ones that know what they expose, which assets matter most, where attackers can realistically get in, and how to reduce reachable exposure before it becomes an incident. That’s what preemptive security means: not a slogan, but an operating model.
The full Quarterly Threat Landscape Report shows where reachable exposure concentrates this quarter, the four actions Rapid7 Labs recommends, the sector-by-sector breakdown, and the dark-web signals shaping what’s next. Read it here before you pressure-test your Q3 prioritization.