In a stunning development, the security world as we knew it spiraled into disarray on April 15, 2025, after MITRE dropped a bombshell: a letter to the CVE Board announcing that the U.S. government wouldn’t be renewing its contract to manage the program. Chaos ensued. Coffee was spilled. Important security tasks were left unupdated – mainly because no one really knew what such a big change to the CVE Program would mean. A core player was about to be degraded, or worse, leave.
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MITRE’s 25-year-old commitment to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program was slated for an abrupt end on April 16, which would have left security flaw tracking in limbo. What could have been a private affair was leaked on social media, and the cybersecurity community lost its marbles – for less than half a day.
As per the latest update, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has extended the funding for MITRE to manage the CVE Program, reversing an imminent contract termination. The contract is set to expire in 11 months, which begs the question: what’s next?
Let’s understand what a world without MITRE managing CVEs would look like.
MITRE: Stewards of the CVE Program
Alongside CISA and Red Hat, MITRE is one of three CVE Numbering Authorities of Last Resort (CNA-LR) and a Top-Level Root (TL-Root). A majority of the more than 400 CNAs work within a specific scope and responsibility to assign and publish CVE IDs and records, but MITRE serves as the ultimate source of truth. MITRE maintains responsibility for governance and administration over other CNAs and assigns CVEs when they fall outside others’ scopes.
MITRE, in conjunction with other major CNAs like NIST over the last ten years, has also been at the forefront of CVE automation, helping responders better understand vulnerabilities. It has paved the way for faster, more standardized ingestion of CVE data by tools and security platforms, such as:
- JSON (for machine readability)
- CVE Services 2.0 API
- Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX)
- Common Security Advisory Force (CSAF)
These innovations have removed bottlenecks from manual CVE assignments and integrated security teams more tightly with the CVE workflow. Enterprises worldwide have significantly reduced noise from the non-exploitable vulnerabilities and made better remediation decisions.
It comes as no surprise that MITRE was chosen as the CVE Program Secretariat. It works in the public interest without commercial or profit-driven motives, making it a neutral and trusted coordinator. MITRE has decades of experience in cybersecurity, systems engineering, and information sharing – essential for managing a complex ecosystem like the CVE Program.
The domino effect
MITRE is the maintainer of the website CVE.org, which provides the authoritative reference method for publicly known vulnerabilities and exposures. If the contract expired and MITRE abruptly shut down the site, companies would potentially have to rely on historical CVE records that are available on GitHub. The CVE ecosystem is complicated and the database is critical for anyone doing vulnerability management or security research. Without MITRE, there would be a dire need for new stable funding or other organizations to step up and support the CVE Program.
“If MITRE’s funding goes away, it causes an immediate cascading effect that will impact vulnerability management on a global scale,” Brian Martin wrote on LinkedIn. “Every company in the world that relied on CVE/NVD for vulnerability intelligence is going to experience swift and sharp pains to their vulnerability management program.”
Brian Martin, a vulnerability historian of 32 years, CSO of the Security Errata project, and former CVE board member
As a result, common global trends would likely see an immediate, sharp rise in adversary activity, with companies getting hacked more frequently. There would be more zero days, and companies around the world would have issues identifying and prioritizing cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Security operations would be stretched thin with analysts having their eyes peeled for any reports of a new vulnerability discovered in the wild.
The resilience
Federal budget cuts are sending shockwaves through the cybersecurity landscape. As defenders face growing uncertainty, attackers have more room to maneuver. It has been reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and CISA, a standalone agency within DHS, are allowing many cyber contracts to lapse. The report states that CISA announced it would be pulling back funding for MS-ISAC and the Election ISAC, two key organizations that provide cybersecurity assistance to thousands of critical infrastructure entities across the U.S.
Now, it is common for the global security community to be thrown into situations that are a royal mess. The announcement triggered the need to decentralize and rely on alternative vulnerability alert solutions such as the EUVD, GCVE, and the CVE Foundation. In 11 months, when the federal funding cycle becomes unreliable yet again, the CVE Foundation will be a possible alternative governance structure to ensure the long-term viability, stability, and independence of the CVE Program. The CVE Foundation plans to detail its structure, timeline, and opportunities for involvement in the future.
Closing thoughts: Next steps for cybersecurity organizations
The CVE program has served as a cornerstone of the global cybersecurity ecosystem for more than two decades, enabling cybersecurity vendors, governments, and critical infrastructure operators to identify and track vulnerabilities consistently. The next step belongs to the defenders and enterprises, but they don’t have to chart the course alone. This announcement underscores the need to step up and collaborate through partnerships, community engagement, or strategic consulting to innovate platforms that offer full-spectrum visibility. With the involvement from the community, rather than a few navigating at the helm, there will be some comfort for the security community to know that help is within reach.
There have always been other options, and they are likely to gain more traction in the wake of this fallout. The uncertainty of relying on a government-funded security program has shaken the global security community to its core. Organizations should broaden their vulnerability management strategy to include vulnerability advisories directly from independent sources like software providers, major Linux distributions, threat intelligence providers, and more – not to mention the alternative CVE solutions explored above. Being better prepared means diversifying sources, strengthening partnerships, and investing in security with broader, deeper, and adaptable visibility that won’t buckle when the status quo shifts.
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The post CVE wake-up call: What’s ahead after the MITRE funding fiasco appeared first on Sysdig.
Article Link: https://sysdig.com/blog/cve-wake-up-call-whats-ahead-after-the-mitre-funding-fiasco/