Microsoft Patches 421 Flaws Including 3 Zero-Days in August Update

Microsoft released its August 2026 Patch Tuesday security updates on August 12, addressing a massive batch of 421 unique vulnerabilities across its product suite, including three zero-day flaws. The release continues a recent trend of significantly larger monthly updates, driven by the company's increased use of artificial intelligence to proactively discover software flaws before attackers can exploit them.

The update includes 42 critical vulnerabilities and 357 important-rated issues. Among the most urgent is CVE-2026-68820, an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock that is already being actively exploited in the wild. Microsoft linked the exploitation to a campaign by the North Korean Lazarus Group, which has been targeting job seekers in the defense and aerospace industries. Two other zero-day vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-62832 and CVE-2026-72971, were publicly disclosed prior to the patches being released.

The August release follows July's record-breaking update, which patched 622 vulnerabilities. Microsoft has previously warned that such large volumes are the new norm as its AI-powered vulnerability discovery system scales...