# 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[↗](/cybersecurity) vulnerability[↗](/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[↗](/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.