vulnerability
Pluralvulnerabilities (some meanings)
- 1The state of being open to attack or injury, whether physical or emotional, or of being weak and poorly defended.
Like standing in an open field during a storm with no shelter anywhere in sight.
The disaster exposed the vulnerability of communities living near the coast.
Sharing his fears with the group took courage and revealed real vulnerability.
Similarweakness, exposure, fragility, defenselessness, openness
Oppositestrength, resilience, security
Note
The uncountable condition, built plainly from vulnerable plus -ity. It usually takes of for whoever is exposed and to for whatever threatens them, as in the vulnerability of male embryos to stress. It covers bodily and emotional exposure alike, and in writing about people it can describe an openness that is worth accepting rather than simply a defect to be fixed.
- 2A particular weak point in the protections or defenses surrounding a person, place, or thing.
Like a single unlocked door in an otherwise well-guarded building.
Investigators identified a key vulnerability in the building's security arrangements.
The general searched the enemy line for a vulnerability he could exploit.
Similarweakness, flaw, gap, chink
Oppositestrength
Note
Here the word turns countable: a vulnerability, several vulnerabilities, each one a particular gap rather than a general condition. It is the same shift that turns weakness into a weakness. Where the general state describes how exposed someone is, this sense points to where the exposure lies, so it pairs with verbs of finding and using: identify, search for, exploit.
- 3A weakness that allows an attacker to reduce the security of a computer system.
Like a faulty lock that the right tool can open in seconds.
The security researcher reported a critical vulnerability in the operating system.
Attackers exploited a vulnerability in the server to gain unauthorized access.
Note
In computing the word is a term of art for a flaw that an attacker can use, not merely a place that could be hurt. Vulnerabilities are reported, exploited and addressed: hackers exploit them, and defenders work to address them. The plural is routine, because systems are judged by their open flaws. Unlike a general weak point, this sense always presupposes an attacker.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "vulnerable" with the suffix "-ity."