vulnerability

Noun

1. The state of being vulnerable; susceptibility to attack or injury, either physical or emotional; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended.
   • The country recognized their defence vulnerability after an airplane landed in front of the central square without any consequences.
   • The only disadvantage of timber snow fencing is its extreme vulnerability to fire. - 1960 January 5, M. Harbottle, “Maintaining Services after Heavy Snowfalls”, in Railway Magazine, page 9:
   • Though scientists do not know how stress affects gestation, Fukuda theorizes that the vulnerability of Y-bearing sperm cells, male embryos and/or male fetuses to stress is why “subtle significant changes in sex ratios”...
2. A specific weakness in the protections or defences surrounding someone or something.
3. A weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system's security.
   • Experts told CNN it could take weeks to address the vulnerabilities and that suspected Chinese hackers are already attempting to exploit it. - 2021 December 13, Sean Lyngaas, “US warns hundreds of millions of devices at...