Vulnerability

A vulnerability is a security weakness in a computing system that is typically found in programs and operating systems. The presence of known vulnerabilities in computing systems can leave these systems very much open to malware and hacker attack. This is because programs that take advantage of known vulnerabilities, commonly referred to as exploits, are often publicly available as source code, which can be customized to create a malware or a hacking tool.

Software vendors typically provide fixes or patches for vulnerabilities found on their products.