Exploiting vulnerabilities

There are several types of vulnerability attacks that can be executed over the network:

• Exploiting a vulnerability: An attacker exploits a known vulnerability of an unpatched system for DoS or to gain access
• Zero-day attacks: An attacker exploits a newly released vulnerability of the system for DoS or to gain access before the vendor provides a patch
• Unknown vulnerability: An attacker exploits a known vulnerability of the system for DoS or to gain access

Protecting from vulnerabilities is a complicated matter as it requires tight coordination between the network, security, and the operations team to detect, identify, and prevent vulnerability attacks from being carried out. However, AWS WAF offers features that help prevent the exploitation of the most important security flaws, as named by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP).