An exploit is a common term in the computer security community to refer to a piece of software that takes advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability, leading to privilege escalation or denial of service on a computer system.

There are several methods of classifying exploits. The most common is by how the exploit contacts the vulnerable software. A 'remote exploit' works over a network and exploits the security vulnerability without any prior access to the vulnerable system. A 'local exploit' requires prior access to the vulnerable system and usually increases the privileges of the person running the exploit past those granted by the system administrator.

Exploits can also be classified by the type of vulnerability they attack. See buffer overflow, format string attacks, race condition, cross-site scripting, and cross-site request forgery.

Many exploits are designed to provide root-level access to a computer system. However, it is also possible to use several exploits, first to gain low-level access, then to escalate privleges repeatedly until one reaches root.

Normally a single exploit can only take advantage of a specific software vulnerability. Often, as such an exploit is published, the vulnerability is fixed and the exploit becomes obsolete for newer versions of the software. This is the reason why some blackhat hackers do not publish their exploits but keep them private to themselves or other malicious hackers. Such exploits are referred to as 'zero day exploits' and to obtain access to such exploits is the primary desire of unskilled malicious attackers, so called script kiddies.

See also

shellcode, computer virus, computer security

External links

• World Wide Exploits Database by K-OTik Security (http://www.k-otik.com/exploits/)
• Metasploit Framework (http://www.metasploit.com/projects/Framework/)
• Advanced Exploit Tutorials (http://medialab.freaknet.org/~alpt/tutorial/papers.html)
• Proof of concept exploit downloads (http://www.packetstormsecurity.org)
• Home of the Bugtraq exploit mailing list (http://www.securityfocus.com/)
• ExploitTree (http://www.securityforest.com/wiki/index.php/Category:ExploitTree) from SecurityForest (http://www.securityforest.com/)