CVE
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Cybersecurity
| Stands for | Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
CVE stands for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, a cybersecurity abbreviation.
The public catalog that gives each disclosed security vulnerability a unique identifier, such as CVE-2021-44228 for Log4Shell, so vendors, researchers and tools can refer to the same flaw.
Example: The scanner found CVE-2024-3400 on the firewall, so patch it before the weekend.
Usage notes
Launched by MITRE in 1999 and funded by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Identifiers are assigned by MITRE and hundreds of CVE Numbering Authorities, including major software vendors. In April 2025 MITRE's funding contract nearly lapsed before CISA extended it at the last minute, and a separate CVE Foundation was formed to safeguard the program. Severity scores come separately, from CVSS.
Related abbreviations
More cybersecurity abbreviations
- CISO – Chief information security officer
- CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional
- CSPM – Cloud security posture management
- CSR – Certificate signing request
- CSRF – Cross-site request forgery
- CTF – Capture the flag
- CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System
- CWE – Common Weakness Enumeration
- DAC – Discretionary access control
- DAST – Dynamic application security testing
- DDoS – Distributed denial of service
- DES – Data Encryption Standard