Chainguard survey finds 77% expect vulnerability exploit within a year

Chainguard said in a press release that 77% of surveyed security leaders expect an attacker to exploit a software vulnerability at their organization within the next year. The survey also found that 91% believe attacks accelerated by AI have changed their jobs more than anything else in the past decade.

Among respondents, 54% said their companies knowingly leave high or critical vulnerabilities unpatched at least sometimes, while 93% expressed concern that their organizations cannot fix exploits driven by AI quickly enough. More than half expect vulnerability discovery powered by AI to routinely outpace their teams within a year.

Chainguard, which provides hardened, production ready open source artifacts to engineers and AI agents, commissioned the survey. Wakefield Research surveyed 1,300 cybersecurity leaders across nine markets in September 2026. Respondents held roles at director level or above and worked for companies with at least 500 employees, except in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, where the minimum was 250 employees.