software vulnerability
a flaw in code an attacker can exploit
A software vulnerability is a mistake in a program — a missing check, a bad assumption, a logic gap — that lets an attacker do something they should not: read data, run commands, or take over a system. Finding them before attackers do is the core of defensive security work, and the harder ones hide in logic rather than in obvious bad patterns.
Think of it as
An unlocked back window on a building: harmless-looking until someone who is looking for a way in finds it.
Ideas that use this term