Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
A standardized scale from 0 to 10 used to rate how severe a software security vulnerability is.
The Common Vulnerability↗ Scoring System (CVSS) is an open, industry-standard framework for rating the severity of a software vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most critical. The score is calculated from factors like how easy the flaw is to exploit↗, whether an attacker needs special access, and what impact a successful exploit would have on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Security teams rely on CVSS scores to prioritize which vulnerabilities to patch↗ first, since organizations rarely have time to fix everything at once. A CVSS score above 9, for example, typically signals a flaw that can be exploited remotely with little effort and deserves urgent attention.