What is a CVE?
Short answer
A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) ID is a unique identifier, such as CVE-2024-12345, assigned to a publicly disclosed security vulnerability. It lets vendors, researchers and defenders refer to the same flaw without confusion. The CVE Program is sponsored by CISA and operated with MITRE.
The details
A CVE ID by itself does not say how severe or exploited a flaw is. For that, look at its CVSS score, whether it appears in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and its EPSS score.
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Terms explained
- CVE
- A CVE ID is a unique public identifier, such as CVE-2024-12345, for a disclosed security vulnerability, assigned through the CVE Program.
- CVSS
- CVSS is a standard maintained by FIRST for rating the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10.
- EPSS
- EPSS, maintained by FIRST, estimates the probability that a published vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.
- Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)
- CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog lists vulnerabilities with reliable evidence that attackers are exploiting them.
Sources
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