What Is CVE? Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Overview

Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVE) collects known cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exposures to help you to better safeguard your embedded software. This framework is central to managing security threats effectively. 

Here, we explain what is CVE, unpack the role of CVE identifiers, examine the differences of CVE vs. CWE, expand on the CVE list, and outline how identifying vulnerabilities early in software development can be achieved with the right static analysis tools.

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What Is CVE?

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) is a list of publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exposures. Each entry on the list is based upon a finding of a specific vulnerability or exposure found in a specific software product, rather than a general class or kind of vulnerability or exposure.

The CVE list has been designed to make it easier to link information from vulnerability databases, and allow comparison of security tools and services. On the CVE list is a collection of CVE Identifiers assigned to each vulnerability and exposure.

What Is the Meaning of CVE in Cybersecurity? 

The primary goal of CVE is to make cybersecurity vulnerabilities easily identifiable and standardized. This enables organizations to communicate information across various databases and tools, simplifying the process of assessing and responding to security risks. 

For example, the CVE list includes unique CVE identifiers, which act as standard reference points for vulnerabilities. CVE identifiers provide a way to track vulnerabilities consistently and share information quickly regarding known threats. 

Why CVE Is Important for Cybersecurity 

Understanding and using CVE identifiers allows organizations to maintain control over their cybersecurity posture. Effective tracking of vulnerabilities enables proactive risk management, ensuring that systems remain protected and resilient. 

Additionally, using CVE data alongside structured risk classification and prioritization systems like CWE and CVSS provides a well-rounded defense approach. Armed with this knowledge, your team can keep ahead of vulnerabilities, prioritize fixes, and achieve compliance with industry standards seamlessly. 

📕 Related Resource: CVE Funding Disruption: How Security Teams Can Prepare

What Are CVE Identifiers?

CVE Identifiers are unique identifiers for assigned to publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The Identifiers are used as a standard method for identifying vulnerabilities and for cross-linking with other repositories.

Each Identifier includes the following:

• A unique identifier number.
• Indication of “entry” or “candidate” status, to denote confirmed or proposed vulnerabilities.
• Brief description that summarizes the security vulnerability or exposure.
• Any pertinent references.

By using CVE identifiers, security professionals can communicate about issues with clarity and precision, helping teams act swiftly as soon as vulnerabilities are discovered. 

CVE vs. CWE

While the CVE framework identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) focuses on general categories of software weaknesses. 

The difference between CVE and CWE is quite simple. CVE refers to a specific instance of a vulnerability within a product or system. While CWE refers to types of software weaknesses. So, in effect, CVE is a list of known instances whereas CWE is a reference book of software vulnerabilities.

Think of CVE as an incident report for a known issue, while CWE is the knowledge base that helps you understand and prevent similar problems from occurring in the future. Together, CVE and CWE provide a comprehensive approach to identifying, understanding, and mitigating security risks. 

📕 Related Resource: Learn more about CWE.

CVE vs. CVSS

The difference between CVE and CVSS is this: CVE is a list of vulnerabilities while CVSS is the overall score assigned to a particular vulnerability. What's more, CVSS and CVE work together in order to help you prioritize software vulnerabilities.

📕 Related Resource: Learn more about CVSS.

What’s Included in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) List?

The common vulnerabilities and exposures CVE list catalogs several types of software vulnerabilities, including:

• Denial of Service (DoS)
• Code Execution
• Buffer Overflow
• Memory Corruption
• SQL Injection
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
• Directory Traversal
• HTTP Response Splitting

It’s important to be able to identify each and every vulnerability that may be present in your code, and static analyzers — like Perforce Klocwork — are the most effective tools to identify and fix software security vulnerabilities.

📕 Related White Paper: Top 10 Embedded Software Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

How to Fix Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures

Addressing vulnerabilities identified through CVE requires a structured approach. Follow these steps to fix common vulnerabilities and exposures:

1. Establish software design requirements, which include defining and enforcing secure coding principles. This helps to inform how to effectively write, test, inspect, analyze, and demonstrate your code.
2. Use a coding standard — such as OWASP, CWE, and CERT — to help prevent, detect, and eliminate vulnerabilities.
3. Implement security checks into your CI/CD pipeline to identify software security vulnerabilities early. In addition, this helps to enforce good coding practices.
4. Test your code as early and often as possible to ensure that vulnerabilities are found and eliminated.

📕 Related Resource: Software Security Guide

How to Address Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures with a SAST / Static Analysis Tool

The best way to address common vulnerabilities and exposures is to develop secure and safe software by using an automated testing tool — like a SAST tool or static code analyzer. 

Static analysis tools identify and eliminate security vulnerabilities and software defects early on in development. This helps to ensure that your software is secure, reliable, and compliant.

By using SAST tools, you are able to:

• Identify and analyze security risks and prioritize severity.
• Fulfill compliance standard requirements.
• Apply and enforce coding standards, including CWE, CERT, OWASP, and DISA STIG.
• Verify and validate through testing.
• Achieve compliance and get certified faster.

Klocwork and Perforce QAC help you apply a coding standard and eliminate software defects and vulnerabilities early on in development, which helps to ensure you’re your software is secure and reliable.

See for yourself how Klocwork and QAC cover CVE and enforce software security standards. Register for a free trial.

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