Security and Theories

[bdh734]

I had an exam in college that asked the following question:

A person sends a worm to an unprotected computer, this is an example of a/an

A) Threat
B) Exploit
C) Vulnerability
D) Threat Agent

I picked Threat and was marked wrong. They said the answer was
Exploit. I was able to successfully argue that it was a threat by stating
that until the worm is executed, it is a threat and would then exploit
the system only if it was successful. Now their argument was by
definition, the internet is a threat and it is up to the user to
protect. Therefore, the worm is designed by nature to be an exploit.
But if we look into that theory, then the internet would become a
threat agent. Whereas a way to deliver all of the above.

Question is....
Am I right with my theory?

Please advise and explain.

Thanks!

[edge]

I think that you also need to know (1) what OS the worm was made for, and (2) what OS the unprotected computer was using!

If the worm was made for Windows, and the unprotected computer's OS was Linux, than none of the answers was correct :-)

[bdh734]

Yes I agree with that. But for giggles, lets says winblows. I just need to know if my theory that I spent 45 minutes in class, in front of 50 other students arguing about was really correct.

Hint: This college has a notch for sending people out the door with M$ stamped on their head.