Software is a common component of the devices or systems that form part of our actual life. These systems are usually complex and are developed by different programmers. Usually programmers make mistakes in the code which could generate software vulnerabilities. A software vulnerability is a flaw or defect in the software construction that can be exploited by an attacker in order to obtain some privileges in the system. It means the vulnerability offers a possible entry point to the system. Despite the knowledge about vulnerabilities nowadays there is still a growing tendency in the number of reported vulnerabilities, reason why software security has become an important field of research. The presence of vulnerabilities in the production of software makes necessary to have tools that can help programmers to avoid or detect them in the development of the code. Thus, in relation to our on-going research on vulnerability detection, this article presents an overview of software vulnerabilities and their prevention and detection methods