DREAD: Damage, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected Users, Discoverability in Cybersecurity
Rhymes with 'head'.
DREAD stands for Damage, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected Users, Discoverability. DREAD is a risk rating model that scores threats on five dimensions to produce a quantitative risk value. Each dimension receives a score from 1 to 10, and the average determines overall threat severity.
How DREAD Is Used in Cybersecurity
Security architects and penetration testers use DREAD scores to prioritize which vulnerabilities to fix first after threat modeling sessions. The model pairs well with STRIDE since STRIDE identifies threats and DREAD ranks their severity. Some organizations have replaced DREAD with CVSS, but it remains popular for its simplicity in threat modeling workshops.
Read the full glossary entry: DREAD in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity Roles That Work with DREAD
Related Cybersecurity Acronyms
Frequently asked questions
What does DREAD stand for?
DREAD stands for Damage, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected Users, Discoverability. DREAD is a risk rating model that scores threats on five dimensions to produce a quantitative risk value. Each dimension receives a score from 1 to 10, and the average determines overall threat severity.
What is DREAD used for in cybersecurity?
Security architects and penetration testers use DREAD scores to prioritize which vulnerabilities to fix first after threat modeling sessions. The model pairs well with STRIDE since STRIDE identifies threats and DREAD ranks their severity. Some organizations have replaced DREAD with CVSS, but it remains popular for its simplicity in threat modeling workshops.
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