Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance, 3rd Edition

Workstation Vulnerability Management

A zero-day vulnerability is an unknown exploit for which there is no patch or fix available. At the heart of it, you may be one of the first to encounter the exploit. Consequently, zero-day vulnerability can create complicated problems well before anyone realizes something is wrong. There is no opportunity for detection because the vulnerability is unknown. An attack happens once that flaw, or software/hardware vulnerability, is exploited and attackers release malware before the vendor can create a patch or fix.

Once a patch is released, the exploit is no longer called a zero-day exploit. These attacks are rarely discovered right away. In fact, it often takes months and potentially years before the vendor ...