Funding Crisis Averted for CVE Program: What Security Professionals Need to Know

A critical cybersecurity resource—the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program—faced imminent shutdown due to expired U.S. government funding on April 16, 2025. MITRE, the nonprofit managing the system, confirmed the lapse but announced an 11-month contract extension by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to prevent disruption¹. The near-collapse of this foundational vulnerability database sparked industry-wide concerns about fragmented tracking and alternative models like the EU’s European Vulnerability Database (EUVD)².

TL;DR: Key Points for Security Teams

• Immediate Risk Mitigated: CISA extended MITRE’s funding through March 2026³.
• Structural Changes: New CVE Foundation aims to decentralize control⁴.
• Operational Impact:
  • Without CVE IDs, vulnerability management tools like Tenable or Qualys would lose standardization.
  • VulnCheck reserved 1,000 CVEs as a stopgap⁵.

The Funding Crisis and Its Technical Implications

The CVE program assigns unique identifiers to publicly disclosed vulnerabilities, serving as the backbone for tools ranging from NVD integrations to SIEM correlation rules. A funding lapse would have halted new CVE assignments, forcing security teams to rely on ad-hoc identifiers or proprietary databases. KrebsOnSecurity compared the scenario to “deleting all dictionaries” for cybersecurity¹.

MITRE’s letter to stakeholders outlined specific operational risks:

“Disruption would affect national vulnerability databases, incident response coordination, and critical infrastructure patching cycles.”

Industry Responses and Workarounds

Private sector actors implemented contingency plans. VulnCheck’s bulk CVE reservation demonstrated how enterprises might bypass centralized systems during outages⁵. Meanwhile, the CVE Foundation—a newly formed nonprofit—proposed transitioning to a multi-stakeholder model resembling Linux Foundation governance⁴.

Stakeholder	Action	Reference
CISA	11-month funding extension	BleepingComputer
VulnCheck	Reserved 1,000 CVEs	The Register
ENISA	Promoted EUVD as supplement	ENISA

Long-Term Solutions and Recommendations

The crisis highlighted systemic fragility in vulnerability management infrastructure. For security teams, MITRE recommends:

1. Monitor CVE Foundation updates for migration timelines.
2. Review internal processes for handling non-CVE-tracked vulnerabilities.
3. Assess EUVD compatibility if operating in European jurisdictions.

Former CISA Director Jen Easterly’s critique of the CVE system as the “Dewey Decimal System of cybersecurity”¹ underscores the need for modernization. Automation via machine-readable formats (e.g., CSAF) could reduce manual processing delays during transitions.

Conclusion

While CISA’s stopgap measure prevents immediate chaos, the episode exposes critical dependencies in global cybersecurity infrastructure. Teams should prepare for potential decentralization of CVE management and evaluate hybrid approaches incorporating alternative databases.

References

1. “Funding Expires for Key Cyber Vulnerability Database.” KrebsOnSecurity, 15 Apr. 2025, https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/04/funding-expires-for-key-cyber-vulnerability-database/.
2. “European Vulnerability Database (EUVD).” ENISA, https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/.
3. “CISA Extends Funding to Ensure No Lapse in Critical CVE Services.” BleepingComputer, 16 Apr. 2025, https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-extends-funding-to-ensure-no-lapse-in-critical-cve-services/.
4. “CVE Program Funding Cut: What It Means and What to Do Next.” Forbes, 16 Apr. 2025, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2025/04/16/cve-program-funding-cut-what-it-means-and-what-to-do-next/.
5. “Homeland Security Funding for CVE Program Expires.” The Register, 16 Apr. 2025, https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/homeland_security_funding_for_cve/.