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Growing Concerns Over CVE and CVSS Reliability
The cybersecurity industry is facing mounting pressure to overhaul its fundamental vulnerability management systems as evidence accumulates about systemic flaws in both the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identification system and the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). Recent analysis from security experts reveals troubling inconsistencies and misaligned incentives that undermine the reliability of these critical security tools. This situation has prompted industry leaders to call for major reforms to vulnerability assessment frameworks that form the backbone of modern application security strategies.
The CVE Credibility Gap
Aram Hovespyan, CEO and co-founder of security firm Codific, has brought attention to what he describes as a fundamental credibility problem within the CVE system. His examination reveals that approximately one-third of all CVEs may be meaningless or unverified. This assessment is supported by academic research presented at the USENIX Security Symposium, where researchers analyzed 1,803 CVEs cited in academic papers over the past five years. The study found that 34% of these vulnerabilities either lacked public confirmation or were disputed by the maintainers of the allegedly vulnerable software.
“The CVE assignment system suffers from fundamentally misaligned incentives,” Hovespyan explained. “Vulnerability researchers are often motivated to accumulate as many CVEs as possible to build their professional reputations, while product CNAs have little incentive to create CVEs that highlight flaws in their own software.” This dynamic creates a perfect storm where quantity often trumps quality in vulnerability reporting.
Systemic Flaws in CVE Assignment Process
The CVE system operates through CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs), which include companies, open source maintainers, foundations, and various security organizations. Originally managed exclusively by MITRE, the program has expanded to include numerous organizations with CNA status. However, the delegation of CVE assignment to CNA-LRs (CVE Numbering Authorities of Last Resort) has introduced additional complications.
“CNA Last Resorts typically lack the technical context for thorough validation and are more inclined to publish quickly rather than accurately,” Hovespyan noted. This rush to publication creates significant challenges for developers who must then address vulnerability reports that may be inaccurate or invalid, yet difficult to formally dispute.
CVSS Scoring Inconsistencies Compound the Problem
The problems extend beyond vulnerability identification to the scoring system designed to prioritize responses. Hovespyan’s analysis of CVSS reveals alarming inconsistencies in how vulnerability severity is assessed. Research indicates that more than 40% of CVEs receive different scores when re-evaluated by the same individuals just nine months later.
Beyond consistency issues, Hovespyan argues that the mathematical foundation of CVSS calculations is fundamentally unsound. The ordinal numbers used in CVSS scoring merely indicate a vulnerability’s position in a list but are frequently misused as quantitative values in security tool calculations and algorithms. This misuse can lead to flawed risk assessments and inappropriate resource allocation.
Real-World Examples Highlight Systemic Failures
The practical consequences of these systemic issues are demonstrated by several notable cases. Florian Hantke, a German PhD student, successfully obtained a CVE for a deprecated system that nobody actually used. The vulnerability initially received a dramatic 9.1 CVSS score before being appropriately downgraded. In his documentation of the experience, Hantke concluded that “we need to recalibrate how we perceive and value CVEs.”
Similarly, a problematic curl vulnerability report initially received a near-maximum CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10 before being downgraded to 3.3. These dramatic scoring fluctuations highlight the subjective nature of vulnerability assessment and the potential for significant misclassification. As major security acquisitions reshape the industry landscape, the need for reliable assessment frameworks becomes increasingly critical.
Industry Leaders Voice Concerns
Daniel Stenberg, creator and maintainer of the popular curl command-line tool, confirmed that Hovespyan’s criticism reflects genuine problems within the current system. “CVSS is meant to give a base score and then everyone should apply their own environment and risk judgement on top, but in reality that is not how the numbers are used,” Stenberg explained.
This recognition of the system’s limitations has led the curl project to take a radical approach: they simply don’t provide CVSS scores at all. “We don’t think we can reliably set a single score for the world to (ab)use,” Stenberg stated, noting that he advocates this position alongside Greg Kroah-Hartman, head of the Linux kernel CNA, who similarly refrains from setting CVSS scores for the considerably larger volume of CVEs generated for the Linux kernel.
Stenberg’s position is so firm that he titled a recent blog post on the subject “CVSS is dead to us.” This sentiment reflects growing frustration among maintainers of widely-used software projects who struggle with the one-size-fits-all approach to vulnerability scoring. Meanwhile, as global tech talent shortages create additional pressures on security teams, the need for efficient, accurate vulnerability management becomes increasingly urgent.
The Path Forward: Contextual Risk Assessment
Despite the identified problems, Hovespyan acknowledges that CVEs and CVSS scores still provide value to the security community. “CVEs and CVSS aren’t useless,” he clarified. “They’re valuable inputs. But they should never be the foundation of an entire AppSec strategy.”
The solution, according to Hovespyan, begins with “a shared understanding of risk, grounded in threat modeling and contextual triage.” He suggests that vulnerability dashboards can be helpful tools, but only when interpreted through what he describes as “a scientific lens.” This approach recognizes that effective vulnerability management requires more than just processing standardized scores—it demands thoughtful consideration of specific organizational contexts and threat environments.
As the cybersecurity industry evolves with emerging technologies creating new security considerations and industry consolidation changing the security landscape, the call for reforming foundational security frameworks grows louder. The current debate around CVE and CVSS reliability reflects broader questions about how the security industry measures, prioritizes, and communicates risk in an increasingly complex digital ecosystem. With infrastructure expansion introducing new attack surfaces, establishing trustworthy vulnerability assessment protocols has never been more critical to organizational security.
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