| Attack vector | Physical | AV | The attack requires the attacker to physically touch or manipulate the vulnerable system. Physical interaction may be brief (e.g., evil maid attack1) or persistent. An example of such an attack is a cold boot attack in which an attacker gains access to disk encryption keys after physically accessing the target system. Other examples include peripheral attacks via FireWire/USB Direct Memory Access (DMA). |
| Attack Complexity | Low | AC | The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system. |
| Privileges Required | High | PR | The attacker requires privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable system allowing full access to the vulnerable system’s settings and files. |
| Scope | | S | An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority that is managing the vulnerable component. This is often referred to as a 'privilege escalation,' where the attacker can use the exploited vulnerability to gain control of resources that were not intended or authorized. |
| Confidentiality | High | C | There is total information disclosure, resulting in all data on the system being revealed to the attacker, or there is a possibility of the attacker gaining control over confidential data. |
| Integrity | High | I | There is a total compromise of system integrity. There is a complete loss of system protection, resulting in the attacker being able to modify any file on the target system. |
| Availability | High | A | There is a total shutdown of the affected resource. The attacker can deny access to the system or data, potentially causing significant loss to the organization. |