In cybersecurity, a vulnerability is a weakness that can be exploited by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to a computer system. After exploiting a vulnerability, a cyberattack can run malicious code, install malware and even steal sensitive data. Vulnerabilities can be exploited by a variety of methods including SQL injection, buffer overflows, cross-site scripting (XSS) and open-source exploit kits that look for known vulnerabilities and security weaknesses in web applications.
Many vulnerabilities impact popular software, placing the many customers using the software at a heightened risk of a data breach, or supply chain attack. Vulnerabilities mostly happen because of components like Hardware, Software, Network and sometimes procedures. A hardware vulnerability is a weakness which can used to attack the system hardware through physically or remotely.