Virtual patching closes the gap as AI erases the patch window

F5 Inc. and CrowdStrike have formalized an integration that embeds CrowdStrike's Falcon sensor onto F5's BIG-IP network appliances, treating them as endpoints, with more than 200 customers already using it and performance overhead of 1% to 2%. The move addresses the shrinking patch window as AI-enabled attacks rise 89% year over year, with average eCrime breakout time down to 29 minutes and fastest at 27 seconds, according to CrowdStrike threat research. F5's chief marketing officer John Maddison said AI-powered security is essential for real-time protection against zero days.

Virtual patching closes the gap as AI erases the patch window Patch Tuesday used to buy defenders a short head start. Now the exploit often lands before the patch does, since automated scanners can weaponize a newly disclosed vulnerability within hours. That inversion is pushing security teams toward virtual patching: shielding an application from a known flaw at the network layer while the real fix is tested and rolled out. John Maddison https://www.linkedin.com/in/jomaddison/ pictured , chief marketing officer and head of technology alliances at F5 Inc., has spent two years at the application delivery and security vendor, which turns 30 this year. F5’s customers are increasingly demanding that kind of protection as the gap between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation collapses, Maddison noted. “What you need now is AI-powered security that can look at the traffic, where it’s going, what it’s trying to get to, and produce protection in real time to stop things like zero days,” Maddison said. “All the protections that sit in what we call CDNs or WAFs are going to be AI-powered. They have to be going forward.” Maddison spoke with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante https://www.linkedin.com/in/dvellante/ and Rebecca Knight https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-m-knight-3667a94/ at Fal.Con https://www.thecube.net/events/crowdstrike/fal-con-2026 , during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how virtual patching can help close shrinking remediation windows and how F5’s partnership with CrowdStrike treats network appliances as endpoints. Disclosure below. F5 and CrowdStrike extend endpoint protection to the network layer F5 and CrowdStrike embed the Falcon sensor directly onto F5’s BIG-IP appliances, which sit at the network perimeter, so CrowdStrike can treat that appliances the same way it treats a laptop or cloud workload. More than 200 customers were already running the integration before the companies formalized it, with performance overhead measured at just 1% to 2%. “We measured it at 1 to 2%, and they’re perfectly willing to deal with that for the security that gets added to it,” Maddison said. “That was always the trade-off between security and networking, high performance versus checking everything that comes through.” The urgency is measurable. CrowdStrike’s own threat research https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/01/ai-detection-response-emerges-security-category-falcon/ found that attacks by AI-enabled adversaries rose 89% year over year, with the average eCrime breakout time down to 29 minutes and the fastest recorded breakout at 27 seconds. Maddison said F5 is applying the same approach to a newer problem: guardrails for AI gateways, including a partnership announced this week with Salesforce Inc.’s MuleSoft. “It’s more around what you do with the information, how you remediate, versus the information itself,” Maddison said. “Because everyone has the information already.” Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Fal.Con event https://www.thecube.net/events/crowdstrike/fal-con-2026 : Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Fal.Con event. 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