Today’s Question: What are Exploit Kits?

According to Wikipedia, “an exploit kit is a software kit designed to run on web servers, with the purpose of identifying software vulnerabilities in client machines communicating with it, and discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities to upload and execute malicious code on the client. One of the earlier kits was MPack, in 2006. Exploit kits are often designed to be modular and easy to use, enabling the addition of new vulnerabilities and the removal of existing ones. Exploit kits also provide a user interface for the person who controls them, which typically includes information on success rates and other types of statistics, as well as the ability to control their settings. A typical kit is a collection of PHP scripts that target security holes in commonly used programs such as Apple Quicktime or Mozilla Firefox. Widely used software such as Oracle Java and Adobe Systems products are targeted particularly often.”