An application exploit is a specially crafted piece of code, data, or sequence of commands designed to take advantage of a vulnerability within a software application. These vulnerabilities may arise from flaws in the application's design, coding errors, or misconfigurations. When successfully executed, an exploit can trigger unintended behavior in the targeted software, enabling attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, escalate privileges, execute arbitrary code, or disrupt service availability entirely.

Application exploits represent one of the most significant threats in cybersecurity because they transform theoretical software weaknesses into practical attack vectors. Protecting against these threats requires comprehensive application security practices, including thorough code reviews, regular vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and timely patching of known flaws. Organizations must maintain vigilance as attackers continuously discover and weaponize new vulnerabilities to compromise critical systems and data.