Cross-product topic

Vulnerabilities and exposure

A cross-product view of Microsoft Defender changes related to Vulnerabilities and exposure.

Latest Vulnerabilities and exposure changes

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management: Private preview for selected developer package vulnerability coverage

Message CenterMC1490909 on mc.merill.net ↗Plan for change
Vulnerabilities and exposure

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is privately previewing expanded vulnerability coverage for selected Node.js, Python, and Java packages on Windows devices. It integrates with existing workflows, APIs, and exports, with rollout planned from September to December 2026. Organizations should prepare for increased data volume and validate integrations before enabling.

Ai Code Security Overview

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The AI code security overview now lists `aspm-data-externalapi-prd.security.aspm.microsoft.com`.

Mdash Foundry Integration

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The page clarifies that Standard deployments use each of the three models once, refers to required model deployments for the Foundry resource, and consolidates the guidance that disconnecting Foundry disables agentic code scanning unless another connection is provided.

Activate Defender Rbac

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation now provides direct navigation and toggle-based steps for deactivating workloads, including confirmation and the resulting **Not Active** status.

Attack Surface Reduction Overview

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The Attack Surface Reduction overview now uses revised links for Microsoft Defender Application Guard, WDAC, and Windows Firewall documentation.

Attack Surface Reduction Rules Configure

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The page now details precedence among local settings, Group Policy, MDM, and Configuration Manager, including the MDMWinsOverGP setting and OMA-URI. It also updates Intune navigation and explains per-rule exclusions.

Attack Surface Reduction Rules Overview

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Starting with platform version 4.18.26060, using the Unblock option to override an ASR rule in Warn mode requires administrator approval. Per-ASR rule exclusions should be used for persistent exceptions.

Cloud overview dashboard in Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article adds navigation anchors, renames section headings, clarifies dashboard section and graph descriptions, and adds links to related cloud security resources and Azure portal guidance.

Codename MDASH Overview

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation now describes direct GitHub and Azure DevOps connectors, on-demand local or CI/CD scans through Defender CLI, and integration with AI coding environments. It also changes the status label from “private preview” to “preview” and reorganizes capability, language-support, and setup information.

Defender CLI setup for agentic code security

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation adds a prerequisite requiring accounts to have at least one listed permission before running Defender CLI commands and updates the Defender.InteractiveLogin scope identifier.

Defender Endpoint Demonstration Attack Surface Reduction Rules

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation now warns that the setup script excludes `c:\demo` from Microsoft Defender Antivirus scanning. Administrators must copy ASR test files to a folder not excluded by Defender Antivirus or ASR rules before opening or running them, then delete the copies afterward.

Exposure insights overview in Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The overview now focuses on initiative scores and metric basics, linking to separate pages for reviewing initiatives and investigating metrics. Detailed metric, unavailable-metric, versioning, and recommendation-management content was removed from this page.

Getting Started with Codename MDASH

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The onboarding requirements now support remote scanning through either GitHub or Azure DevOps, refer to a linked list of required models, and document two authentication methods for the Foundry project endpoint. Detailed RBAC requirements are now provided through linked guidance.

Install and run Defender CLI

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The guide now describes two authentication methods, tenant environment variables, asynchronous scan execution with Job IDs, and selectable AI model profiles, including a MAI-augmented preview profile. Installation instructions were also reorganized by platform.

Mdash Initiative

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The MDASH Scans documentation now explains how to cancel queued or running scans, what the confirmation dialog displays, and how to provide a cancellation reason. Consumed tokens are not refunded.

Microsoft Defender EASM page asset filters

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article was retitled and rebranded for Microsoft Defender EASM, its heading and introductory text were revised, and it now describes defined-value and freeform filters for page-asset searches, including IP version and domain status.

Prerequisites and support in Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation now states that Defender for Cloud with CSPM and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management must be enabled for full dashboard value. It also specifies that the service is available only in the public cloud, not national or sovereign clouds.

Review Attack Paths

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation page describing attack path prerequisites, dashboards, grouping, choke points, blast radius, path examination, and recommendations was deleted.

Review Security Initiatives in Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article now uses updated Microsoft Security Exposure Management terminology, adds prerequisite guidance and a direct link to the initiatives page, and refreshes navigation steps, headings, anchors, and descriptions of favorites and initiative trends.

Review security recommendations in Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article is now labeled as a how-to guide, adds author and AI-use metadata, simplifies its introduction, and reformats the transition tip. It continues to explain that seeing both recommendation formats or Preview-tagged recommendations is expected during the transition.

Risk evaluation framework changelog

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The changelog now lists 80+ Defender for SQL Vulnerability Assessment recommendations as generally available, with a link to the database-level recommendations experience.

Security Copilot In Microsoft 365 Defender

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The Defender XDR documentation now uses updated relative links for Security Copilot threat intelligence guidance and the “Use threat intelligence” page.

Security Events

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The `security-events.md` page was deleted, including prerequisites and steps for reviewing, filtering, and opening security events in the Microsoft Defender portal.

Start using Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article now directs users to Exposure Management > Overview and describes the Resolve Now and Monitor Exposure sections, including prioritized remediation categories and internet-exposed resource views. Prerequisites are now linked separately.

Trigger an on-demand agentic scan (private preview)

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation now covers SCM connectors, including GitHub and Azure DevOps. Repositories may take up to one hour to become available after connector activation, and each scan can use the default GPT-General profile or the MAI-Augmented preview profile.

Understand asset details in Microsoft Defender EASM

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article title, headings, terminology, explanatory wording, and screenshot markup were updated. Terms such as “Signature algorithm Object Identifier” and “Autonomous System Numbers” are now expanded.

Understand dashboards in Microsoft Defender EASM

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The page was retitled and revised to describe eight dashboards, including inventory, attack surface, security posture, compliance, and risk insights. Several explanations and terms were also clarified.

Understand just-in-time virtual machine access

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The article now uses clearer Azure and AWS headings, anchors, and tab identifiers; clarifies approved access requests and expiration behavior; and adds decision-flow diagram references and a next-steps link.

What is Microsoft Security Exposure Management?

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The documentation now states that Microsoft Security Exposure Management is available only in Public Cloud and unavailable in national or sovereign clouds, including US Gov and China Gov. It also adds descriptions of the Overview dashboard’s Resolve Now and Monitor Exposure views.

What's new in Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The August 2026 entries cover keyless Microsoft Foundry authentication, portal scan cancellation, an Azure DevOps connector preview, MAI-Augmented scan profiles, and an updated overview dashboard preview. Attack-path links and older release-note content were also updated.

Work with attack paths in Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Vulnerabilities and exposure

The page was retitled and reorganized as a how-to guide covering attack-path generation, data sources, data availability, fluctuating results, and the separate Defender for Cloud cloud-only experience. The previous dashboard overview and screenshot were removed.

Codename Mdash Faq

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Updated Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/codename-mdash-faq.md.

Microsoft 365 Security Center Mde

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Updated Microsoft Defender documentation in defender-xdr/microsoft-365-security-center-mde.md.

Whats New

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Updated Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/whats-new.md.

CI/CD example for Defender CLI

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Added Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/defender-cli-cicd.md.

Codename MDASH - FAQ

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Added Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/codename-mdash-faq.md.

Codename MDASH Overview

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Added Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/ai-code-security-overview.md.

Configure Data Connectors

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Updated Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/configure-data-connectors.md.

Initiatives List

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Updated Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/initiatives-list.md.

Install and run Defender CLI

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Added Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/defender-cli.md.

Prerequisites

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Updated Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/prerequisites.md.

Review agentic code scan results

Vulnerabilities and exposure

Added Microsoft Defender documentation in exposure-management/understanding-mdash-results.md.