Software vulnerability exploitation is now the #1 breach vector, and your current remediation process probably can’t keep up with it.
Veracode analyzed 1.6 million unique applications and 141 million raw findings for the 2026 State of Software Security report. Here’s what the data actually shows:
- It takes the median organization 243 days to remediate half of its open flaws
- Fix capacity is stuck at roughly 10% of flaws per month
- 49% of applications now carry security debt, up from 42% a year ago (17% year- over-year increase)
- High-risk vulnerabilities jumped 36%, from 8.3% to 11.3% of all findings
Third-party code compounds it further. Open-source flaws caught via SCA have a fix half-life of 358 days. That’s 115 days longer than first-party findings.
While teams spend eight-plus months in catchup mode, the attacker window keeps shrinking. The 2026 Verizon DBIR found that 29% of CISA KEV vulnerabilities were exploited before public disclosure. AI is cutting the time between a vulnerability existing and someone weaponizing it from years to months, sometimes days.
Debt compounds. Fix capacity stays flat or even decreases. The gap widens.
Veracode’s Security Debt Demolition Guide gives teams a debt classification system, so the highest-risk flaws get immediate escalation instead of a queue placement. Paired with IDE-integrated tooling, “fix before close” policies, and CI/CD security gates that stop high-risk findings before they hit production.
To learn more information about the data from both reports, watch our webinar now on demand.
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