Glossary – Microfinance-CERT

Glossary

CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)
An international reference system that assigns a unique identifier to each publicly disclosed vulnerability, such as CVE-2026-42897. Quoting this identifier lets everyone refer to the same flaw without ambiguity.
Exploit
A piece of code or a technique that takes advantage of a vulnerability to compromise a system. An exploit being publicly available considerably raises the urgency of applying the patch.
Indicator of Compromise (IoC)
A concrete, observable trace suggesting that a system has been compromised: a malicious IP address, a file signature, an unusual domain name. Indicators allow you to check whether your own institution is affected.
Patch
A software update published by a vendor to correct a vulnerability. Applying it is the primary remediation measure recommended in our alerts.
Severity level
The degree of urgency assigned to an alert by mFIN-CERT: Critical, High, Moderate or Informative. It reflects the potential impact on an institution and the speed with which action should be taken.
TLP (Traffic Light Protocol)
A colour code stating who you may share an alert with. TLP: CLEAR - no restriction. TLP: GREEN - the community and partners. TLP: AMBER - your institution and those who need to act, not publicly. TLP: RED - named recipients only.
Vulnerability
A weakness in a software product or a configuration that an attacker can use to gain access, alter data or disrupt a service. A vulnerability is not an incident: it is the opening that makes one possible.
XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
An attack in which malicious code is injected into a legitimate web page, then executed in the browser of whoever visits it. It can be used to steal a session or to display fraudulent content.