[HN Gopher] CVE Foundation
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       CVE Foundation
        
       Author : layer8
       Score  : 436 points
       Date   : 2025-04-16 12:16 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thecvefoundation.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thecvefoundation.org)
        
       | melodyogonna wrote:
       | Very nice!
        
       | ta1243 wrote:
       | Yeah, in the USA, where organisations and officers are
       | continually threatened by an adversarial government.
       | 
       | No thanks.
       | 
       | Harvard for example doesn't kow-tow to the reigime, and look what
       | happens. Non-profits in the USA are not independent.
        
         | ape4 wrote:
         | Its not hard to imagine the current regime complaining about a
         | CVE issued about a product made by a favored company - eg x.com
        
         | throwawaymaths wrote:
         | A non profit is independent if they don't take federal money?
         | Like EFF, for example.
         | 
         | Maybe CVEs _should_ be tracked by a nongovernmental agency,
         | like how UL works.
        
           | mschuster91 wrote:
           | > A non profit is independent if they don't take federal
           | money? Like EFF, for example.
           | 
           | The problem is the seat of the non-profit, as long as it is
           | in the US it remains vulnerable to stuff like gag orders (and
           | the UK is similar, see the recent issues with Apple and E2E
           | encryption), or just the administration plainly ignoring the
           | law and just forcing it to shut down or whatnot.
           | 
           | > Maybe CVEs should be tracked by a nongovernmental agency,
           | like how UL works.
           | 
           | The current administration has attacked multiple
           | nongovernmental agencies already, or trampled over federal
           | law.
           | 
           | The only thing I'd trust _for now_ to be a safe haven would
           | be an international organization like the WHO that 's backed
           | by diplomatic treaties - but even these aren't safe either,
           | just look at the ICC vs Israel debate, or the constant
           | attacks and conspiracy theories on the WHO.
        
             | dmix wrote:
             | > as long as it is in the US it remains vulnerable to stuff
             | like gag orders
             | 
             | Only under FISA warrants where you can't reveal the
             | investigation to the public or during a regular trial if
             | the judge determines leaking details of the case will
             | impact justice AFAIK.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | Do you trust this administration to respect the rule of
               | law to that degree? _That_ is the core issue IMHO.
        
               | throwawaymaths wrote:
               | Probably less than most (but not all) administrations.
               | Almost every administration has trammelled on the rule of
               | law. FDR and Wilson come to mind as among the worsr. At
               | least this administration has many vocal eyes on it.
        
             | throwawaymaths wrote:
             | > WHO conspiracy theory
             | 
             | OK well we know where you stand on that issue. Too bad
             | pretty much every working molecular biologist agrees that
             | the WHO is covering up COVID origins.
        
         | odo1242 wrote:
         | Harvard takes a lot of federal money. On the order of millions
         | to billions of dollars.
        
           | brazzy wrote:
           | However, they just refused demands to compromise their
           | principles in order to keep receiving those billions, while
           | many other organizations caved in to the threats.
        
       | relistan wrote:
       | Hopefully this is legit. There is no real info. They say both
       | that they are responding to the announcement and that they have
       | been planning it for a year. I doubt that the last part was
       | intensely planned or they'd likely have announced something
       | sooner.
       | 
       | I suspect some likely fracturing of efforts here. Would be great
       | if everyone did get behind a single solution. I'm not sure if
       | this is it. A US-based non-profit is not maybe the best solution.
        
       | excalibur wrote:
       | The letter was dated yesterday, and in response they spent the
       | past year working on this?
        
         | HelloNurse wrote:
         | "While we had hoped this day would not come, we have been
         | preparing for this possibility.
         | 
         | In response, a coalition ..."
         | 
         | This sounds like secret, unofficial contingency planning; "this
         | day" has apparently come very suddenly.
        
           | excalibur wrote:
           | On its face this sounds like a scheme quickly devised by a
           | malicious actor to gain a trusted role. We're starting to see
           | some external corrobboration, so maybe it will turn out to be
           | legitimate after all, but the smart money is always on
           | skepticism.
        
             | HelloNurse wrote:
             | Definitely. Not showing an immediate threat, such as a copy
             | of the CVE database or a request for money, can be assumed
             | to be the typical approach of a long con rather than a sign
             | of goodwill.
        
           | odo1242 wrote:
           | I doubt it's meant to be "secret" contingency planning, but
           | definitely unofficial contingency planning
        
       | LiamPowell wrote:
       | Edit: See other comments. Some CVE board members have posted this
       | on their social media accounts however there's still nothing on
       | any official CVE channels. It's a little concerning that this was
       | upvoted to the top of the front page before those comments had
       | been posted given that this is a newly registered domain running
       | on Google sites for something that it says has been in the works
       | for a year.
       | 
       | Original comment:
       | 
       | Why is this being upvoted? There's no reference to it on the CVE
       | website and the domain was only registered after the letter
       | leaked despite the website claiming this was in the works for a
       | year.
       | 
       | Additionally the WHOIS claims that the registrant is "CVE
       | Foundation" which can not be found using the IRS search tool for
       | tax-exempt organisations (note that MITRE does show up here):
       | https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/
        
         | stavros wrote:
         | We're all just happy to see it.
        
           | ForOldHack wrote:
           | Extremely. We are all extremely happy to see it. No data
           | Sharimg with the Whitehouse, keep the tsunami at bay.
           | 
           | Not, "All your updates are belong to us."
           | 
           | And...
           | 
           | A personal thanks to every security researcher who has
           | contributed. In.The last year. I see a CVE, and specifically
           | look for the out-or-band update and patch everything that
           | powers up.
           | 
           | One breach on an old ladies laptop, who had the sence to
           | bring it right to me. Keep those covers on the cameras folks.
        
         | _verandaguy wrote:
         | Seconding this. A program like CVE still has to be built on (to
         | some extent, and at least in the initial stages) traditional,
         | non-cryptographic trust.
         | 
         | Who runs this thing? Who's funding it? Who's reviewing,
         | testing, and approving the reports? Assigning them IDs?
         | 
         | I'm hoping for the best, and I'm willing to give the benefit of
         | the doubt because of the frankly crap timing around this whole
         | mess, but on its face, in its current state, I wouldn't trust
         | this org at all.
        
           | ForOldHack wrote:
           | It's a sad day when the CVE has to issue a CVE for the U.S.
           | government. The meta... The meta ...
        
       | OtherShrezzing wrote:
       | This is a Google Workspace site thrown up 11hrs ago, and doesn't
       | appear to be linked to from any official source.
       | 
       | I don't think it's credible that CVE as an organisation would
       | produce this website and not link to it from their official site
       | or social media accounts.
        
         | pama wrote:
         | There is hope people will report this site and google will take
         | it down quickly.
        
       | xyst wrote:
       | As I suspected in other thread, the gutting of the CVE program
       | will lead to a fractured db of CVEs. Wonder how many more will
       | pop up out of the wood works.
        
       | inktype wrote:
       | Comments are understandably negative as the press release has
       | very little information, but I clicked vouch because I have a
       | reason to believe it is legitimate
        
         | edent wrote:
         | Care to share your reason with the rest of the class?
        
           | ForOldHack wrote:
           | The Chinese, and Russians who share data with the N Koreans
           | are prowling around like an oversexed pack of boy scouts 24
           | hours a day, 7 days a week, and not a single one took Easter
           | week off. Worried?
           | 
           | Cloudstrike turned into the worst peice of garbage since
           | waferlocks...
           | 
           | The single most profitable source of forien funds for N Korea
           | turns out to be stolen vit-xoins, while gov officials are
           | forciblly removed from their desks...
           | 
           | What. Me. Worry?
        
             | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
             | Packs are for cub scouts. It would be an oversexed troop.
        
       | hobofan wrote:
       | To all the comments doubting the legitimacy:
       | 
       | Here is a LinkedIn post by one of the CVE board members
       | (literally the first one on the list here[0]):
       | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterallor_cve-foundation-act...
       | 
       | I'm sure if you look at some of the contact information of other
       | CVE board members and their broadcasting platforms you will also
       | find something.
       | 
       | [0]: https://www.cve.org/programorganization/board
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | Tod Beardsley seems to confirm it as well:
         | https://infosec.exchange/@todb
        
           | Xunjin wrote:
           | Ngl, I would love a more "clear confirmation" he just boosted
           | and posted a meme.
        
             | hobofan wrote:
             | He boosted a post that is 1:1 an announcement of the
             | project.
             | 
             | How much more of a "clear confirmation" do you want? An
             | announcement from their non-existent personal press
             | secretaries that just says the exact same text as that post
             | he boosted?
             | 
             | I think people here need to take a step back and realize
             | that the people and board involved here are more like linux
             | kernel maintainers that are not generally public figures
             | and not C-level executives of a Fortune 500 company.
             | 
             | Yes, since it's cybersecurity a bit more caution than usual
             | is probably warranted, but it's not like the CVE DB has
             | gone offline and everyone is currently scrambling to find
             | the new legitimate replacement. Let's let this situation
             | breathe for a few hours/days instead of being overly
             | cautious and spending all energy on skepticism.
        
               | Xunjin wrote:
               | I've pointed out that I think a more clear (in this case
               | an explicit message) would be better. You extrapolated to
               | the other end, assuming that I wanted a press release,
               | which I do feel is a false dichotomy. There are more than
               | one existing option here, and a middle ground would
               | certainly be perfect in this context.
        
               | heresie-dabord wrote:
               | > instead of being overly cautious and spending all
               | energy on skepticism.
               | 
               | Given the state of trustworthy information in news and
               | public discourse, it's understandable that people request
               | a credible source.
               | 
               | The thing called "social media" ain't it.
        
       | HelloNurse wrote:
       | As this is security, assume the worst: it isn't legit unless
       | MITRE confirms a handover, and even in that case there's ample
       | room for questioning.
        
       | LunaSea wrote:
       | The Foundation should refuse to procure data to US governmental
       | services and affiliated companies providing services to it.
        
       | bildiba wrote:
       | I haven't been actively monitoring for security vulnerabilities
       | ever since I switched from system administration to software
       | development a few decades back. These days, I just read news that
       | talks about high profile vulnerabilities - I do see CVE a lot
       | more than cert.
       | 
       | We used to look at cert: https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/ I just did
       | a quick search to confirm that it is still there.
       | 
       | What's the difference/relationship between the two?
        
         | iterance wrote:
         | The primary difference is that CVE was unexpectedly killed by
         | the US Government yesterday and the program terminates today.
        
       | alexmorley wrote:
       | Edit suggests the contract has been renewed last minute.
       | 
       | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2025/04/16/cve-...
        
         | Shank wrote:
         | Are there any non-Forbes sources that confirm this?
        
           | marcusb wrote:
           | Just social media posts, with claims they received the info
           | from CISA
           | https://infosec.exchange/@metacurity/114347467581760027
           | 
           | Supposedly, MITRE will make a statement today. Time will
           | tell.
           | 
           |  _Edit - it is MITRE, not CISA, which the poster expects to
           | make a statement._
        
             | ForOldHack wrote:
             | This was 0 minutes ago. Glad to see how important CVE is to
             | security personel.
        
               | marcusb wrote:
               | ?
               | 
               | Metacurity's post was like 90 minutes ago.
        
           | shagie wrote:
           | https://www.itpro.com/security/confusion-and-frustration-
           | mit...
           | 
           | > However, in an updated statement, the agency revealed it
           | intends to maintain the database in a bid to prevent a lapse
           | in CVE services.
           | 
           | > "The CVE Program is invaluable to the cyber community and a
           | priority of CISA," a spokesperson said.
           | 
           | > "Last night, CISA executed the option period on the
           | contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE
           | services. We appreciate our partners' and stakeholders'
           | patience."
           | 
           | Searching for that last passage:
           | 
           | https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-
           | extends-...
           | 
           | > "The CVE Program is invaluable to cyber community and a
           | priority of CISA," the U.S. cybersecurity agency told
           | BleepingComputer. "Last night, CISA executed the option
           | period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in
           | critical CVE services. We appreciate our partners' and
           | stakeholders' patience."
           | 
           | And https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-agency-extends-
           | support-l...
           | 
           | > WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - U.S. officials have said
           | at the last minute that they're extending support for a
           | critical database of cyber weaknesses whose funding was due
           | to run out on Wednesday.
           | 
           | > The planned lapse in payments for the MITRE Corp's Common
           | Vulnerabilities and Exposures database spread alarm across
           | the cybersecurity community. The database, which acts as a
           | kind of catalog for cyber weaknesses, plays a key role in
           | enabling IT administrators to quickly flag and triage the
           | myriad different bugs and hacks discovered daily.
        
             | chris_wot wrote:
             | Let me guess, Elon's DOGE crew were part of this and
             | screwed up yet another thing that is essential for U.S.
             | security?
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | My {conspiracy | belief | suspicion} is that this was
               | something that as part of the DoD they saw "Mitre
               | Corporation" and that organization's relationship with
               | MIT and were pulling funding for anything "elite liberal
               | academia" (even distantly related) combined with the
               | "we're pulling back from anything cybersecurity" (
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43228029 ). (edit)
               | I've run out of invocations of Hanlon's Razor and it
               | needs a long rest before its recharged. (/edit)
               | 
               | I don't believe it was a mistake - they _wanted_ to pull
               | its funding (and still intend to do). Note the wording of
               | the statement:
               | 
               | > Last night, CISA executed the option period on the
               | contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE
               | services.
               | 
               | We are now in the option period.
               | 
               | At some point in the future, that option period will
               | expire.
        
               | neodymiumphish wrote:
               | This type of option exercise is extremely common in
               | government contracts. I don't think there's much to read
               | into on that front.
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | The option is common (its particulars of the award is at 
               | https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_70RCSJ24FR0000
               | 019... ). The fact that the option needed to be done
               | rather than DHS continuing to support CVE and related
               | programs is an abandonment of the responsibilities of the
               | organization to try to keep computer systems secure.
               | 
               | https://www.cisa.gov/news-
               | events/directives/bod-22-01-reduci...                  A
               | binding operational directive is a compulsory direction
               | to federal, executive branch, departments and agencies
               | for purposes of safeguarding federal information and
               | information systems.             Section 3553(b)(2) of
               | title 44, U.S. Code, authorizes the Secretary of the
               | Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop and
               | oversee the implementation of binding operational
               | directives.             Federal agencies are required to
               | comply with DHS-developed directives.             ...
               | Remediate each vulnerability according to the timelines
               | set forth in the CISA-managed vulnerability catalog. The
               | catalog will list exploited vulnerabilities that carry
               | significant risk to the federal enterprise with the
               | requirement to remediate within 6 months for
               | vulnerabilities with a Common Vulnerabilities and
               | Exposures (CVE) ID assigned prior to 2021 and within two
               | weeks for all other vulnerabilities. These default
               | timelines may be adjusted in the case of grave risk to
               | the Federal Enterprise.
               | 
               | If there's no catalog that the government is maintaining
               | for "these things need to be fixed to run on federal
               | systems" ... then how do you ensure that the federal
               | computers are secure?
        
               | snickerbockers wrote:
               | I would feel a lot better about my skills knowing that
               | bigballs also had difficulty figuring out what the
               | correct syntax for this particular engine's version of \w
               | and how many layers of backslash escapes are needed.
        
           | plasma_beam wrote:
           | It hasn't posted to FPDS yet:https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fp
           | dsportal?q=PIID%3A%2270RCSJ2...
           | 
           | Assuming this is the correct contract, which it appears to
           | be, it had an option period starting today through March of
           | next year. DHS just needed to exercise the option.
        
           | DeepYogurt wrote:
           | Main page news on https://www.cisa.gov/
        
           | numpad0 wrote:
           | Why would that be important???
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related ongoing threads:
       | 
       |  _CVE program faces swift end after DHS fails to renew contract
       | [fixed]_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43700607
       | 
       |  _Replacing CVE_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43708409
        
       | Vox_Leone wrote:
       | I think it's time the biggest players in the software industry
       | step up, maybe through a formal consortium. This model would make
       | sense because they benefit the most. Big tech companies rely on
       | CVEs to secure their own products;
       | 
       | They have the means. With their massive revenue and dedicated
       | security teams, these companies could easily fund CVE operations.
       | A consortium approach spreads responsibility fairly;
       | 
       | Shared responsibility, shared benefits. Security is everyone's
       | problem.
        
         | jpleger wrote:
         | Hahaha, CVE was created because industry refused to track and
         | report on things in a consistent and transparent manner. When
         | given the option, business will almost always choose the easy
         | path, and things like vulnerability management programs will be
         | set back years if not decades when the external accountability
         | goes away.
         | 
         | In general, lawyers and CTOs would probably love to see CVE go
         | away or be taken over by industry.
         | 
         | Source: been working in security for 20+ years.
        
           | SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
           | Because CVE means accountability. It's very easy to shift
           | accountability onto someone for an unpatched CVE. If given
           | the chance to escape that accountability I'm sure every
           | megacorp would jump at it.
        
           | anon6362 wrote:
           | Yup. I'd say around 15% of very severe incidents are ever
           | announced publicly. In most cases, the default is cover-up
           | and hope no one finds out.
           | 
           | To anyone who thinks a libertarian/anarcho-capitalist/Network
           | States "utopia" of Retire All Gubberment Employees (RAGE) is
           | a "good thing", thing about air, water, and soil pollution
           | from sewage to arsenic to particulates to lead to
           | radioactivity. Greedy sociopaths DGAF who they hurt, which is
           | perhaps why James Madison observed: "If all men were angels,
           | no government would be necessary." Obviously, this is not
           | human nature and so some laws, enforcement, and regulators is
           | required indefinitely. Anyone who tells you differently isn't
           | a serious person.
        
         | nonrandomstring wrote:
         | The last people I am ever going to trust about matters of
         | security is US BigTech. Consortium or not. This idea has no
         | legs. We absolutely need an international cyber threat
         | intelligence network, with many checks, balances and
         | oversights. If we're going to ask "who funds it?" then we need
         | to ask "who really benefits from a technology industry?"
        
         | blitzar wrote:
         | > biggest players in the software industry step up
         | 
         | While they are at it maybe chuck $5 to the dev maintaining the
         | open source package that your trillion dollar corporation
         | relies on, that your 50,000 leetcoders can't figure out how to
         | write or live without.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | There's nothing official about CVE moving.. Why should I trust
       | anything on thecvefoundation.org? If you're going to do it, be
       | serious about all of it. Setup something like "CVE.arpa" which
       | immediately displays very serious credibility. Write an official
       | handoff letter. Put out an official statement for its new home.
       | What has been done here is another half-baked half-measure
       | attempt at solving a very political problem.
        
       | FateOfNations wrote:
       | As somewhat of an aside, this development doesn't necessarily
       | mean much in the way of changes to the way the program is
       | currently run. The foundation can act as a conduit/collection
       | point for funding from industry, with the program remaining run
       | under a contract with MITRE.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-04-17 23:02 UTC)