Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)
A public catalog assigning a unique reference number to each publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerability.
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) is a public, freely available catalog that assigns a unique identifier, formatted like CVE-2026-12345, to every publicly disclosed cybersecurity↗ vulnerability↗. This gives researchers, vendors, and security teams a shared reference so everyone is talking about the exact same flaw.
When a new vulnerability is found in a piece of software, it's typically assigned a CVE number as part of the disclosure process, and that number then appears in vendor patch↗ notes, security advisories, and vulnerability scanners. Searching a CVE ID is usually the fastest way to find out exactly what a flaw does and whether it affects software you use.