Summing up the quarterly counts of the CVE program, new CVEs in 2025 reached an all-time high of about 48,000. In Q4 2025 alone, 12,796 CVE records were published. The upward trend is continuing into 2026. 

What is clear is that the discovery, disclosure, and exploitation of vulnerabilities are all accelerating. Analyzing all vulnerabilities with the same depth and patching them at the same speed is no longer a realistic solution.

Going forward, organizations must not prioritize actions solely based on CVSS scores. At a minimum, the following factors must be examined together.

• Is it a product that our organization actually uses?

• Is it exposed to the Internet or a partner's network?

• Is it connected to critical data and core operations?

• Is it being actively exploited in real-world attacks?

• Has the exploit code been publicly released?

• Are accounts or cloud privileges excessively configured?

• Can it be chained with other vulnerabilities to create an attack path?

• Can security controls or detection systems block the attack?

The standard for vulnerability management must shift from "the highest score in the world" to "the most dangerous attack path for our organization." To achieve this, organizations must utilize not only NVD, but also vendor security advisories, CISA KEV, EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System), EUVD (European Vulnerability Database), commercial threat intelligence, SBOM (Software Bill of Materials), asset management data, and external exposure information.

It is critical to verify how vulnerabilities connect to actual assets and how far an attacker can move laterally.

"Even without an external scorecard, can we determine which vulnerability is truly dangerous in our system?"

Organizations that cannot answer this question face two major risks.

One is the vulnerability that was missed because there was no score. The other is the vulnerability that was postponed due to a low score, but became a critical attack path when chained with other weaknesses.

The era of being attacked due to a lack of information is passing. Now, we are entering an era where too much information causes us to miss the truly critical risks.

The core of vulnerability management is not about receiving more lists. It is the ability to determine what is truly dangerous based on our organization's assets, operations, privileges, and network.