What Happens If CVE Funding Fails? A Warning Shot for Cybersecurity

The near-disruption of the CVE Program in April 2025 wasn’t just a bureaucratic mishap—it was a warning. Hours before MITRE’s contract to operate the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system was set to lapse, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) extended funding. But the reprieve came with no guarantee of long-term stability.

Every day, businesses of all sizes depend on timely CVE disclosures to guide patch cycles, inform risk assessments, and feed threat intelligence platforms. If that data stream were to pause—even briefly—the ripple effects could undermine the foundation of modern cybersecurity.

What CVEs Are (and Why They Matter)

The CVE system is a public registry of known cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Managed by MITRE Corporation and funded by CISA, it assigns a unique identifier (e.g., CVE-2024-12345) to each disclosed vulnerability. These identifiers are woven into nearly every security platform, from SIEMs and scanners to compliance checklists and vendor bulletins.

Without CVEs, organizations wouldn’t have a standardized way to track or remediate vulnerabilities, and the security ecosystem would fragment into incompatible, siloed systems.

The 2025 Scare: A Breakdown

On April 15, 2025, The Verge reported that MITRE’s CVE funding was hours away from expiration (Turton, 2025). Late that evening, CISA extended the contract—but provided no timeline for how long funding would continue (Konkel, 2025). The cybersecurity world exhaled… briefly.

This wasn’t a hypothetical risk. MITRE had already prepared to pause the publication of new CVEs if no action was taken.

The Fallout of a CVE Freeze

• Security Tools Go Blind: Patch management, vulnerability scanners, and SIEMs rely on CVE entries. Without them, automation halts.
• Threat Intelligence Delays: Real-time feeds from dozens of sources would be incomplete.
• Compliance Risks Multiply: SOC 2, HIPAA, and other frameworks expect documented vulnerability tracking—CVE gaps could cause audit failures.
• Small Businesses Suffer Most: Enterprises may have threat intel teams to compensate. Most others don’t.

A Symptom of a Bigger Problem

The near-lapse exposed a deeper issue: cybersecurity’s critical infrastructure often depends on underfunded public-private partnerships. This is not unique to CVEs. We’ve seen it with NIST standards, OWASP projects, and even open-source software libraries.

Cybersecurity is often treated as a technical afterthought until a crisis hits. But in reality, it’s a shared digital commons—and it must be protected like one.

What Your Business Should Do

• Diversify Your Sources: Ensure your vulnerability feeds include alternative databases (e.g., NVD, vendor advisories).
• Audit Your Dependencies: Know what software you use—and what vulnerabilities affect it.
• Review Risk Registers: Include “CVE infrastructure instability” as a threat.
• Talk to Your MSP or IT Provider: Ask how they prepare for disruptions in threat intelligence.
• Raise It at Your Next Board Meeting: Leadership must understand how close we came.

Closing Thoughts

If the CVE system goes dark—even temporarily—it won’t just affect hackers and defenders. It will affect you: your vendors, your compliance status, your security posture, and ultimately, your reputation.

As stewards of modern business, we cannot afford to treat foundational cybersecurity programs like disposable tools. They are infrastructure—and they must be treated as such.

Want to make sure your business is ready for the next disruption? Download our Cyber Threat Readiness Checklist to see how your organization stacks up—and where it needs to improve.

References

Konkel, F. (2025, April 16). CISA extends MITRE-backed CVE contract hours before its lapse. NextGov. https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2025/04/cisa-extends-mitre-backed-cve-contract-hours-its-lapse/404601/

Turton, W. (2025, April 15). The future of the CVE vulnerability program is uncertain as funding deadline looms. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/news/649314/cve-mitre-funding-vulnerabilities-exposures-funding