Understanding the Relationship Between Vulnerabilities and Exploits?

A vulnerability is a weakness, a crack in the armor, that a malicious actor can exploit to break in, take control and perform unauthorized actions. An exploit is the method, the weapon they wield, turning that weakness into a full-blown attack, actually breaking in, taking control and performing unauthorized actions. Let’s dive deep into vulnerabilities and exploits to gain a better understanding of their relationship and the true risks they pose.

What is a Vulnerability

As defined earlier, a vulnerability is a weak point in your system. Software systems nowadays are extremely complicated. Vulnerabilities could be lurking anywhere, from your cloud infrastructure, hardware devices and firmware, to your software supply chain, applications or application programming interfaces. Every year, thousands upon thousands of vulnerabilities are detected and cataloged in central repositories such as cve.org/ and nvd.nist.gov/. According to a blog by first.org, 40,704 vulnerabilities were published in 2024.

Legacy software systems, which have not been updated for a long time, are usually riddled with known vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, even brand new software systems can be shipped with vulnerabilities not known to the vendor or even the application security community. This latter kind of vulnerabilities are known as zero-day vulnerabilities, in the sense that the software vendor has zero days to prepare a fix, as the vulnerability has already been described and potentially even been exploited.

In modern software development of cloud applications, developers leverage a ton of open source software. In fact, a Linux Foundation Study from 2022, estimated that open source software constitutes between 70-90% of a software system. Malicious actors are constantly scanning all available software, and finding vulnerabilities in them.

However just because a piece of software bundled in your application or OS contains a vulnerability, it doesn’t mean that you are vulnerable to that particular vulnerability. If that particular piece of vulnerable software is never used, how can a malicious actor even exploit it? Let’s discuss exploits now.

"Open source software constitutes between 70-90% of a software system" (Source: Linux Foundation Study, 2022 )

What is an Exploit

An exploit is the method or the technique, through which a malicious actor can leverage a vulnerability and perform unauthorized actions inside your system. Exploits are therefore malicious pieces of code which are used to take advantage of vulnerabilities. They are tailor made to exploit a specific vulnerability and affect your operating system or a specific application, and running software designed by the malicious actor to perform various tasks, such as 

• Impact the business of your organization by making unauthorised changes exposing you to litigation.
• Steal sensitive data such as customer records, sales information etc
• Lock you out of critical infrastructure and ransom you for gaining back access.
• Look for ways to laterally move inside your organization’s software
• Lie in wait till the malicious actor has a use for them.

Vulnerabilities and Exploits Metaphor

‍You oversee security at a medieval fort. The lord commander suspects enemy scouts may have found weaknesses. Upon inspection, the fort’s walls and gates seem impenetrable. As you prepare to report this, a mysterious figure hands you a sealed scroll and vanishes. The scroll warns that a section of the wall was repaired with defective mortar that deteriorates in salty air, making it vulnerable. You alert the lord commander, who orders repairs with the right mortar. Days later, the enemy attacks that section, but thanks to your discovery, the lord commander is prepared, traps the enemy, and secures victory.

In this example:

• Wall = Application
• Mortar & stones = Libraries
• Weak mortar = Vulnerability
• Battering rams = Exploit
• New mortar = Fix
• Mysterious figure = Scanning solution
• You = AppSec
• Building guild = Developers
• Enemy = Malicious actor

How Can You Protect Yourself

Only 7% of libraries are typically executed

Raven’s runtime insights reveal that only 7% of libraries are typically executed. Raven identifies which libraries and functions are actually executed at the CPU level, and highlights vulnerabilities in these libraries. You do not need to bother your development teams about fixing vulnerabilities in libraries which are never executed, since your applications will never be vulnerable to those vulnerabilities.

Raven can help you deprioritize over 93% of vulnerabilities detected by traditional SCA tools, making your vulnerability management process cost-effective, efficient and tailored to the real risks in your organization. ‍

Click here to reach out to Raven to schedule a demo today to learn how we can help you prioritize the right vulnerabilities and improve your application security posture.