0day

0day

A zero-day (also known as a 0-day) is a vulnerability in a computer system that was previously unknown to its developers or anyone capable of mitigating it. Until the vulnerability is mitigated, threat actors can exploit it. An exploit taking advantage of a zero-day is called a zero-day exploit, or zero-day attack. The term "zero-day" originally referred to the number of days since a new piece of software was released to the public, so "zero-day software" was obtained by hacking into a developer's computer before release. Eventually the term was applied to the vulnerabilities that allowed this hacking, and to the number of days that the vendor has had to fix them. Vendors who discover the vulnerability may create patches or advise workarounds to mitigate it. Still users need to deploy the mitigation to eliminate the vulnerability in their systems. In the case of zero-day exploits, nobody has deployed a fix yet. Zero-day attacks are severe threats.

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