Defining vulnerabilities in a few steps

Vulnerabilities are flaws in applications, and include the following:

• Security risks
• Functionality issues

These applications can be in any device, such as virtual machines or appliances. They can have multiple vectors, such as the following:

• Remote network
• Local network
• Local system

An intersection of three elements:

• A system susceptibility or flaw
• Attacker's access to the flaw
• And attacker's capability to exploit the flaw

From vulnerability to threat

A hacker identifies the vulnerability and develops means to use the vulnerability to manipulate the application exploit. The exploit is successfully used and you are open for business, which is depicted as shown:

...