Zero-day exploitation: what should vulnerability teams change now?

TL;DR: Zero-day exploitation is now outpacing the traditional disclose, scan, remediate cycle, according to Anchore, with Mandiant reporting a mean time to exploit of -7 days and CrowdStrike finding 42% of vulnerabilities were exploited before public disclosure. The practical shift is from waiting for scans to querying already-stored SBOM and vulnerability data before the response window closes.

Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Anchore: “What Your Vulnerability Scan Misses The Moment a Zero-Day Drops”.

By the numbers:

• CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report found that 42% of vulnerabilities were exploited before public disclosure, according to Anchore.

Key questions

Q: What should teams do first when a zero-day is disclosed before scanning can finish?

A: Start with the most current inventory data you already trust, then query that inventory for the affected CVE, package, or version.

Q: Why do zero-day vulnerabilities create such high operational risk for defenders?

A: Zero-days compress the defender's timeline because attackers can act before a patch exists or before change control can complete.

Q: What breaks when teams rely on a new scan to confirm zero-day exposure?

A: The workflow can fail because the scan finishes after attackers have already had a usable window.

Practitioner guidance

• Validate vulnerability feed freshness Check the Data Service Build Time field before trusting any zero-day query result, because stale feeds turn a fast answer into a misleading one.
• Query stored SBOM inventory first Use vulnerability ID lookups and package-version searches against stored SBOM data before triggering a fresh scan, especially when disclosure and exploitation overlap.
• Add package-level zero-day checks Search by package name and version when a CVE record is missing or delayed, so newly exposed components are still identified during the early advisory window.

Bottom line: Zero-day response now depends on how quickly teams can query exposure, not how quickly they can launch a fresh scan.

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