The Case of MITRE CVE, NIST NVD and Global Cybersecurity

Global Impacts of Instability in U.S. Federally Funded Cybersecurity Infrastructure

Generated with AI by Ferenc Frész.

Two fundamental pillars of the global cybersecurity ecosystem, the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program operated by MITRE Corporation and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), play critical roles in identifying and managing vulnerabilities worldwide. CVE provides unique identifiers for publicly known vulnerabilities, while NVD enriches this information with contextual data, such as severity scores. Recently, both organizations have faced significant funding and operational challenges: the CVE program is threatened by the expiration of its funding contract, while NVD struggles with severe and growing backlogs in processing incoming vulnerability data.

This entry analyzes the global consequences of these U.S.-centered problems. Our findings indicate that the instability of these fundamental infrastructures has serious and far-reaching effects on international organizations, governments, and the entire cybersecurity community. Key consequences include decreased efficiency in global vulnerability management processes, increased difficulty in risk assessment and patch prioritization, disruption of international vulnerability coordination efforts, and reduced reliability of cybersecurity tools (e.g., vulnerability scanners, SIEM systems) that rely on CVE and NVD data. Furthermore, the unreliability of U.S.-led fundamental cybersecurity infrastructure may undermine international trust in U.S.-led global cybersecurity initiatives and standards, potentially encouraging the development of alternative regional or national vulnerability databases, which could lead to ecosystem fragmentation.

The Essential Role of CVE and NVD

In today's modern digital world, identifying, cataloging, and managing cybersecurity vulnerabilities is essential for protecting organizations, governments, and individuals. In this complex environment, two U.S. federally funded programs have become de facto pillars of the global cybersecurity ecosystem: the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program operated by MITRE Corporation and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The CVE program's mission is to identify, define, and catalog publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Each vulnerability receives a unique CVE identifier (e.g., CVE-2014-0160 for Heartbleed), enabling security professionals, researchers, software developers, and organizations worldwide to unambiguously and consistently reference the same issue. This unified nomenclature is essential for efficient information sharing and correlation of vulnerability data across different tools, databases, and reports.