Vulnerabilities Glossary

Browse 12 vulnerabilities terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

12 Vulnerabilities Terms

Advisory
A published notice about a security issue, vulnerability, risk, or recommended action, often issued by a vendor, CERT, or research group. Advisories help...
Code Vulnerability
A weakness in source code or compiled program logic that can be exploited to violate confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Code vulnerabilities may stem...
CVE Database
A database or feed of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures records used to track publicly identified software vulnerabilities. Teams use CVE databases for...
Heap Overflow
A memory corruption bug where data written to heap-allocated memory exceeds the intended bounds and overwrites adjacent objects or allocator state. Heap...
Heart Bleed
A common misspelling or informal reference to Heartbleed, the critical 2014 OpenSSL vulnerability that allowed attackers to read unintended portions of server...
IoT Vulnerability
A weakness in an internet-connected device, its firmware, cloud backend, or mobile app that can be exploited for unauthorized access, surveillance, disruption,...
Known Vulnerability
A software or system weakness that has already been publicly or privately identified, documented, or tracked. Known vulnerabilities are especially important...
Protocol Vulnerability
A weakness in a protocol's design or implementation that can be exploited to bypass trust, leak data, disrupt service, or manipulate communications. Protocol...
Public Vulnerability
A vulnerability that has been disclosed publicly through an advisory, CVE, research post, or exploit release. Public vulnerabilities often draw immediate...
Vulnerability Fix
A change that removes or mitigates a specific vulnerability in software or infrastructure. In security operations, vulnerability fixes need clear mapping to...
Vulnerability Patch
A patch issued to correct a known vulnerability or reduce the risk from it. In practical security work, vulnerability patches are judged not only by technical...
Zero-Day Patch
A patch released in response to a zero-day vulnerability, often under urgent conditions because active exploitation is possible or already happening. The term...

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