Stay updated on the latest in information security flaws. Explore news, insights, and analysis on vulnerabilities affecting digital safety.
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Background for this topic.
A flaw is a defect in software, hardware, system design, or configuration that causes unintended behavior. In security reporting, the term usually means a weakness that could violate confidentiality, integrity, or availability when reached through a particular interface, input, privilege, or operating condition. Not every flaw is exploitable, and exploitability depends on factors such as exposure, authentication requirements, affected versions, and available mitigations.
Flaws matter because they can create attack paths in applications, operating systems, devices, APIs, or administrative settings. Security teams assess their severity and exposure, prioritize remediation, apply patches or configuration changes, and use isolation or access controls when immediate fixes are unavailable. Code review, testing, vulnerability scanning, and monitoring can reveal flaws across the development and operational lifecycle. Reports should distinguish a confirmed vulnerability from a theoretical defect and provide enough technical detail to support validation without unnecessarily enabling exploitation.
If unpatched, a host of GPU Display Driver flaws could expose gamers, graphic designers, and others to code execution, denial of service, data tampering, and more.
Red Hat has issued patches for a bug in an open source Java virtual machine software that opens the door to drive-by localhost attacks. Patch now, as it's easy for cyberattackers to exploit.
The vulnerability, disclosed In October, gives an unauthenticated attacker a way to take control of an affected product.
The bug could allow unauthorized access and takeover, earning it a spot on the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog.
The manufacturer is working to fix a vulnerability — similar to a previous problem in Lenovo laptops — that allows threat actors to modify or disable Secure Boot settings to load malware.