Title: Describe the characteristics of vulnerabilities.
Course: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing (13002-III) > Section: Exploring Vulnerabilities, Risks, and Threats in Manufacturing Systems

Description should include

- defining the term vulnerability as a weakness that allows an attacker to reduce a system’s information assurance
- understanding that a large number of vulnerabilities historically have been through flaws in software
- describing elements that make a system vulnerable, such as
  - system susceptibility or flaw
  - attacker access to the flaw
  - attacker capability to exploit the flaw

- explaining the effect of a vulnerability on a system (i.e., compromised confidentiality, integrity, or availability of resources)
- discussing flaws in software that can lead to vulnerabilities, such as
  - buffer overflow or broken authentication and session management
  - injection vulnerabilities
  - input validation
  - privilege confusion
  - session handling
  - obsolete versions

- evaluating vulnerabilities as they relate to
  - physical facilities and environment of the system or personnel working with the system
  - operational procedures, including security measures
  - business operations
  - hardware
  - software
  - communication equipment and network (individually or in combination).

Process/Skill Questions:

- What are the top five cybersecurity vulnerabilities?
- How have historical flaws in software applications been improved to cut down on vulnerability and threat?
- What cryptographic problems could be seen as a vulnerability?