VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)
¿Qué es VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)?
VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)A machine-readable companion to the SBOM that tells consumers whether a listed CVE actually affects a given product — distinguishing 'present in the bill of materials' from 'reachable and exploitable'.
VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange) is a class of attestation document, formalized by CISA and the U.S. NTIA in 2022–2023, designed to suppress SBOM noise. When a customer scans a vendor's product, they typically discover every CVE listed against every transitive dependency — most of which are not actually exploitable because the affected code path is unused, mitigated, or compiled out. A VEX statement, signed by the vendor or downstream maintainer, declares one of four statuses for each (product, CVE) pair: not_affected, affected, fixed, or under_investigation, plus a justification (e.g. 'vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path'). VEX is format-agnostic and is currently produced as OpenVEX (a minimal JSON profile), CSAF VEX (an OASIS-standardized profile), or embedded in CycloneDX vulnerability extensions. It is becoming a contractual deliverable alongside SBOMs in regulated sectors.
● Ejemplos
- 01
A library upgrade adds a transitive dep flagged with five CVEs; the vendor ships an OpenVEX document marking four as 'not_affected: vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path'.
- 02
An automated scanner consumes the customer's SBOM plus the vendor's VEX statements and reduces 200 raw CVE findings to 7 actionable ones.
● Preguntas frecuentes
¿Qué es VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)?
A machine-readable companion to the SBOM that tells consumers whether a listed CVE actually affects a given product — distinguishing 'present in the bill of materials' from 'reachable and exploitable'. Pertenece a la categoría de Seguridad de aplicaciones en ciberseguridad.
¿Qué significa VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)?
A machine-readable companion to the SBOM that tells consumers whether a listed CVE actually affects a given product — distinguishing 'present in the bill of materials' from 'reachable and exploitable'.
¿Cómo funciona VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)?
VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange) is a class of attestation document, formalized by CISA and the U.S. NTIA in 2022–2023, designed to suppress SBOM noise. When a customer scans a vendor's product, they typically discover every CVE listed against every transitive dependency — most of which are not actually exploitable because the affected code path is unused, mitigated, or compiled out. A VEX statement, signed by the vendor or downstream maintainer, declares one of four statuses for each (product, CVE) pair: not_affected, affected, fixed, or under_investigation, plus a justification (e.g. 'vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path'). VEX is format-agnostic and is currently produced as OpenVEX (a minimal JSON profile), CSAF VEX (an OASIS-standardized profile), or embedded in CycloneDX vulnerability extensions. It is becoming a contractual deliverable alongside SBOMs in regulated sectors.
¿Cómo defenderse de VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)?
Las defensas contra VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange) combinan habitualmente controles técnicos y prácticas operativas, como se detalla en la definición.
¿Cuáles son otros nombres para VEX (Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange)?
Nombres alternativos comunes: Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange, OpenVEX, CSAF VEX.
● Términos relacionados
- appsec№ 1185
Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)
Inventario formal y legible por máquina de los componentes, bibliotecas y dependencias que componen un software, junto con sus versiones y relaciones.
- appsec№ 297
CycloneDX
An OWASP-curated open standard for software, SaaS, ML, and crypto bills of materials, designed from the start for security use cases and now widely used to ship SBOMs alongside releases.
- appsec№ 1190
SPDX (Software Package Data Exchange)
A Linux Foundation-maintained, ISO/IEC 5962-standardized open format for software bills of materials, originally focused on license metadata and now broadly used for SBOMs.
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CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)
Catálogo público que asigna un identificador único a cada vulnerabilidad divulgada para referenciarla de forma inequívoca en todo el sector.
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EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System)
Modelo basado en datos, mantenido por FIRST, que estima la probabilidad de que un CVE sea explotado en la naturaleza en los próximos 30 días.
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Vulnerabilidad explotada conocida (KEV)
CVE que CISA (EE. UU.) confirma como activamente explotada y añade a su catálogo público KEV, imponiendo plazos de remediación a las agencias federales.