Exploiting a vulnerability

Hackers have been known to take the time to study the systems used by targets in order to identify any vulnerabilities. For instance, WikiLeaks has often said that the NSA does the same thing, and so far a database of vulnerabilities exists on computing devices, commonly used software systems, and even everyday devices. Their stored exploits have been outed by a hacking group called The Shadow Brokers, who regularly leak some of the vulnerabilities that the agency keeps. Some of the previously released vulnerabilities have been used by black hats to create powerful malware such as WannaCry. To summarize, there are hacking groups and many other government agencies studying software systems to find exploitable vulnerabilities.

The exploitation of vulnerabilities is done when hackers take advantage of bugs in a software system; this could be within an operating system, the kernel, or a web-based system. The vulnerabilities provide loopholes through which hackers can...