attack surface
nounid
1553·updated May 9, 2026verified
The set of points on the boundary of a system, a system element, or an environment where an attacker can try to enter, cause an effect on, or extract data from that system, system element, or environment. [19]
MWE
Attested in
NIST SP 800-171 Rev 3 - Protecting CUI in Nonfederal Systems
03.14.08 ¶ 2
Classifications
Entity Type
Vulnerability85%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5
Sensitivity
—95%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5
Information Class
—95%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5
Variants
- plural
- attack surfaces
- possessive
- attack surface's
- pluralpossessive
- attack surfaces'
Framework definitions
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) Cybersecurity Lexicon1 senseview framework →
- §1 · extended_definition_available
- The set of ways in which an adversary can enter a system and potentially cause damage.
- §1
- The sum of an information system’s characteristics in the broad categories (software, hardware, network, processes and human) which allows an attacker to probe, enter, attack or maintain a presence in the system and potentially cause damage to an FMI. A smaller attack surface means that the FMI is less exploitable and an attack less likely.
- §1 · glossary
- The set of points on the boundary of a system, a system element, or an environment where an attacker can try to enter, cause an effect on, or extract data from that system, system element, or environment. [19]Attribution from the CKI glossary mapping stage (glossary)
- §1 · attested_usage_pack_match
- No definition is given in NIST SP 800-171r3. The term is attested in use at 1 citation in that document; a definition is pending curation.Increment 2: attested in 800-171r3 without a glossary definition.
- §1 · legacy_primary
- The set of ways in which an adversary can enter a system and potentially cause damage.DR-088 backfill from the noun definition column
Outgoing relationships
No outgoing triples
This term is not the subject of any RDF-style relationship yet.
Incoming relationships
No incoming triples
No other term currently asserts a relationship to this one.