Vulnerability detection is based on publicly known vulnerabilities that affect systems, network
devices, and applications. Attackers may exploit vulnerabilities in many ways, for example, to
gain unauthorized access to networks and to confidential information. There are several
databases of currently known vulnerabilities (for example, Common Vulnerabilities and
Exposures maintained by the MITRE Corporation). Vulnerabilities are closely connected to
signatures of known attacks used in misuse detection. However, one vulnerability may be
related to several known attacks and variations of attacks, which means that detecting
vulnerabilities is more effective than inspecting traffic only for known attack patterns.