Question 1

True or false: Most zero-day exploits are discovered by ethical hackers who report them to vendors for free.

Accepted Answer

False. Many are discovered by malicious actors or state-sponsored groups, though ethical hackers do find and report some, often for bounties.

Question 2

True or false: Zero-day exploits are always used for cybercrime and never by governments.

Accepted Answer

False. Governments and intelligence agencies frequently develop or purchase zero-days for espionage and offensive operations.

Question 3

True or false: Zero-day exploits are completely undetectable by any antivirus software.

Accepted Answer

False. While often undetected initially, advanced behavior-based detection or heuristics can sometimes flag suspicious activity from a zero-day.

Question 4

True or false: Zero-day exploits target vulnerabilities that the software vendor has known about for over a year.

Accepted Answer

False. The term 'zero-day' means the vendor has had zero days to fix it. Once known for a year, it's no longer a zero-day.

Question 5

True or false: A zero-day exploit can be sold on the black market for millions of dollars.

Accepted Answer

True. High-impact zero-days for popular software like iOS or Windows can fetch $1–$20 million from brokers and governments.

Question 6

True or false: Stuxnet, the cyberweapon that damaged Iranian centrifuges, used multiple zero-day exploits.

Accepted Answer

True. Stuxnet famously leveraged four zero-day exploits to spread and cause physical damage, making it a landmark in cyberwarfare.

Question 7

True or false: The first recorded use of the term 'zero-day' was in the late 1990s by hacker groups.

Accepted Answer

True. The term emerged in the 1990s within the warez and hacking scenes to describe cracks released on the same day as the software.

Question 8

True or false: A single zero-day exploit can remain undetected for years before being discovered.

Accepted Answer

True. Some zero-days, like the 'EternalBlue' exploit used in WannaCry, were kept secret by intelligence agencies for over five years.

Zero-day exploit Trivia Questions