VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange represents a standardized format designed to communicate whether specific vulnerabilities actually affect particular software components within your organization's technology stack. For DevSecOps leaders managing complex software supply chains, VEX provides a critical mechanism to cut through the noise of vulnerability alerts and focus remediation efforts where they truly matter. This glossary article explores the technical foundations, practical applications, and strategic value of VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange for enterprise security teams.
What is VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange?
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange is a machine-readable security document format that allows software vendors, manufacturers, and security teams to convey whether a known vulnerability affects a specific product or component. When a new CVE gets published, organizations often face the challenge of determining if their software is genuinely vulnerable or if the vulnerable code path exists but remains unexploitable in their particular implementation.
The VEX format provides a structured way to share exploitability assessments alongside Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) data. Where an SBOM tells you what components exist in your software, VEX tells you which of those components are actually vulnerable to specific threats. This distinction becomes critical when you consider that a typical enterprise application might contain hundreds or thousands of dependencies, many of which may have known CVEs that don't actually pose a risk in the specific context of use.
VEX documents contain several key data elements that make them valuable for security decision-making. Each VEX statement includes the vulnerability identifier (typically a CVE number), the affected product or component, the exploitability status, and supporting justification for that status. This structured approach enables automated vulnerability management workflows that can prioritize remediation based on actual exploitability rather than mere presence of vulnerable code.
The Technical Architecture of VEX Documents
VEX implementations currently exist in multiple formats, reflecting the evolving nature of software supply chain security standards. The most common implementations include OpenVEX, CycloneDX VEX, and CSAF VEX (Common Security Advisory Framework). Each format shares core principles while offering different technical approaches to encoding and distributing exploitability information.
OpenVEX Format Specifications
OpenVEX provides a lightweight, standalone format designed for simplicity and broad adoption. The format uses JSON encoding and focuses on the minimal required fields necessary to convey exploitability status. OpenVEX documents can be created and consumed independently of any specific SBOM format, making them flexible for organizations at different stages of supply chain security maturity.
An OpenVEX document contains product identifiers, vulnerability references, status declarations, and optional action statements. The status field can indicate whether a component is "not_affected," "affected," "fixed," or "under_investigation." This granular status information helps security teams prioritize their response activities based on actual risk rather than hypothetical exposure.
CycloneDX VEX Integration
CycloneDX takes a different approach by embedding VEX information directly within the SBOM structure. This integrated model means that a single CycloneDX document can contain both the inventory of components and their exploitability status for known vulnerabilities. For organizations already using CycloneDX for SBOM generation, this integration reduces tool complexity and ensures exploitability data travels with component inventory data.
The CycloneDX approach supports version tracking, allowing VEX information to evolve as new vulnerability details emerge or as software updates change the exploitability landscape. This versioning capability proves valuable for tracking how risk profiles change across software releases and for maintaining historical records of security posture.
CSAF VEX for Security Advisories
CSAF VEX represents the most comprehensive approach, designed primarily for security advisory distribution. CSAF provides rich metadata capabilities and supports complex product trees that map vulnerabilities to specific product versions, configurations, and deployment scenarios. Organizations with diverse product portfolios often prefer CSAF for its expressive power and established ecosystem of tooling.
The CSAF format includes extensive fields for remediation guidance, threat assessments, and acknowledgments. This makes CSAF VEX documents suitable not just for binary exploitability declarations but for comprehensive security communications that guide response activities across complex organizational structures.
Exploitability Status Declarations Explained
The core value proposition of VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange centers on accurate status declarations that inform security decision-making. Understanding what each status means and when to use it requires careful consideration of technical context and risk tolerance.
Not Affected Status
A "not affected" declaration indicates that while a component might contain code associated with a CVE, the vulnerability cannot be exploited in the specific product context. This might occur because the vulnerable code path is never executed, required attack preconditions don't exist in the deployment environment, or compensating controls prevent exploitation.
When declaring a component "not affected," the VEX document should include justification explaining why the vulnerability doesn't pose a risk. This justification might reference architectural decisions, configuration requirements, or security controls that prevent exploitation. Detailed justifications help downstream consumers understand the reasoning and assess whether the same logic applies to their deployment scenarios.
Affected Status with Remediation Guidance
An "affected" status indicates that the vulnerability can be exploited in the product's typical use cases and remediation is required. VEX documents declaring affected status should provide actionable guidance about remediation timelines, available patches, or recommended mitigations. This information transforms the VEX document from a simple alert into an actionable security advisory.
The affected status can include severity adjustments based on product-specific context. A vulnerability might have a critical CVSS score in general but pose lower risk in a specific product due to defense-in-depth measures, limited attack surface, or restricted deployment environments. VEX allows vendors to communicate these contextual risk adjustments transparently.
Fixed Status and Version Tracking
The "fixed" status indicates that a vulnerability has been remediated in specific product versions. VEX documents declaring fixed status should specify exactly which versions contain the fix, allowing automated tools to verify whether deployed software includes the remediation. This version-specific information enables precise vulnerability management that avoids both false positives and false negatives.
Fixed status declarations become particularly valuable in complex dependency chains where a vulnerability might be fixed at one layer but not yet propagated through all downstream products. VEX documents can track this propagation, helping organizations understand when fixes reach their deployed software through transitive dependencies.
Under Investigation Status
The "under investigation" status acknowledges vulnerability awareness while indicating that exploitability assessment remains incomplete. This status proves valuable for rapid response scenarios where vulnerabilities are disclosed but thorough analysis hasn't finished. Organizations can issue preliminary VEX documents with under investigation status, then update them as analysis progresses.
This staged approach to VEX publication balances transparency with accuracy. Security teams receive immediate notification that vendors are analyzing a vulnerability, avoiding the perception of silence or inaction, while vendors maintain the flexibility to provide accurate status declarations once analysis completes.
VEX in Software Supply Chain Security Workflows
The real power of VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange emerges when integrated into broader software supply chain security workflows. VEX documents don't exist in isolation but rather complement SBOMs, vulnerability databases, and automated security tooling to create comprehensive risk management capabilities.
Integrating VEX with SBOM Processes
Organizations building mature software supply chain security programs typically start with SBOM generation, creating inventories of software components across their technology estate. VEX documents build on this foundation by adding vulnerability context to component inventories. When security tools ingest both SBOMs and corresponding VEX documents, they can automatically filter vulnerability alerts to show only those requiring remediation action.
This integration dramatically reduces alert fatigue for security teams. Rather than investigating every CVE associated with every component in an SBOM, teams focus on vulnerabilities that vendors or internal security analysts have confirmed as exploitable. The time savings compound across large application portfolios where automated VEX processing can eliminate thousands of false positive alerts.
Vendor-Provided VEX Documents
Software vendors increasingly provide VEX documents alongside product releases, particularly vendors serving regulated industries or security-conscious customers. When vendors publish VEX documents for their products, downstream consumers gain immediate visibility into which CVEs affect their deployments without conducting independent analysis.
Vendor-provided VEX documents shift the analytical burden from customers to vendors who possess superior knowledge of product internals. This distribution of effort makes sense from both an efficiency and accuracy perspective. Vendors understand their code, dependencies, and architectural decisions better than external analysts, positioning them to make more accurate exploitability assessments.
Internal VEX Generation for Custom Software
Organizations developing custom software can generate VEX documents for their own applications, providing downstream consumers or internal teams with exploitability context. This proves particularly valuable for platform teams supporting internal customers or for product companies distributing software to external users.
Internal VEX generation requires establishing processes for vulnerability triage, exploitability analysis, and document publication. DevSecOps teams typically integrate VEX generation into existing security review workflows, creating VEX documents as part of vulnerability response activities rather than as a separate process.
Implementing VEX in Enterprise Environments
Successful VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange adoption requires thoughtful implementation planning that considers tooling, process changes, and organizational alignment. Enterprise and mid-size businesses face unique challenges when implementing VEX due to complex technology stacks, distributed development teams, and diverse vendor relationships.
Tooling Requirements for VEX Management
VEX adoption depends on tooling that can generate, distribute, consume, and act on VEX documents. The current tooling landscape includes both open-source projects and commercial platforms offering VEX capabilities. Organizations should evaluate tools based on their existing security infrastructure, preferred VEX format, and integration requirements.
Key tooling capabilities include VEX document creation with appropriate status declarations and justifications, distribution mechanisms for publishing VEX documents to consumers, automated consumption of vendor-provided VEX documents, and integration with vulnerability management platforms for automated alert filtering. The tooling ecosystem continues maturing rapidly as VEX adoption increases across the industry.
Establishing VEX Governance Policies
Organizations need clear policies governing who can issue VEX declarations, what evidence supports different status claims, and how frequently VEX documents should be updated. These governance policies ensure consistency and accuracy while preventing casual or unfounded declarations that could increase risk.
VEX governance policies should address several key questions. Who has authority to declare components not affected by specific vulnerabilities? What testing or analysis is required before issuing VEX documents? How long can under investigation status persist before requiring escalation? What review processes apply before VEX publication? Clear answers to these questions prevent inconsistent implementations that undermine VEX value.
Training Teams on VEX Concepts
Development teams, security analysts, and operations staff all play roles in effective VEX implementation. Training ensures these stakeholders understand VEX concepts, know how to interpret VEX documents, and can contribute to exploitability analysis. This training investment pays dividends through more accurate VEX documents and better security outcomes.
Training content should cover VEX fundamentals, exploitability analysis techniques, tooling operation, and organizational policies. Hands-on exercises help teams practice creating VEX documents for realistic scenarios and interpreting vendor-provided VEX documents during vulnerability response activities. Role-specific training ensures each stakeholder group receives relevant information without unnecessary detail.
VEX Benefits for DevSecOps Teams
DevSecOps teams managing continuous integration and deployment pipelines gain substantial benefits from VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange adoption. These benefits extend beyond simple alert reduction to encompass improved risk prioritization, faster deployment cycles, and enhanced stakeholder communication.
Reducing False Positive Vulnerability Alerts
The most immediate benefit comes from dramatic reduction in false positive vulnerability alerts. Security scanning tools typically flag every CVE associated with every component in an SBOM, regardless of whether the vulnerability is actually exploitable. This creates massive alert volumes that overwhelm security teams and lead to important vulnerabilities being missed amid the noise.
VEX documents allow automated tools to filter these alerts, showing only vulnerabilities confirmed as exploitable in specific contexts. This filtered view lets security analysts focus their limited time on genuine risks rather than investigating countless vulnerabilities that pose no actual threat. The efficiency gains often exceed 80-90% reduction in alerts requiring manual investigation.
Accelerating Deployment Velocity
Many organizations struggle with tension between security and deployment velocity. Security gates that block deployments based on vulnerability scans often halt releases even when detected vulnerabilities pose no actual risk. This creates friction between development and security teams while slowing delivery of business value.
VEX integration into deployment pipelines allows more intelligent security gates. Rather than blocking all deployments with any detected CVEs, gates can allow deployment when VEX documents indicate vulnerabilities are not exploitable or have acceptable risk levels. This risk-based approach maintains security standards while enabling faster deployment of software that meets risk tolerance thresholds.
Improving Risk Communication
VEX documents provide a standardized mechanism for communicating risk information across organizational boundaries. Security teams can share VEX documents with leadership to demonstrate risk posture and remediation progress. Development teams can receive VEX documents clarifying which vulnerabilities require immediate attention versus which can be addressed in regular maintenance cycles.
This improved communication reduces misunderstandings and misaligned priorities. When everyone works from the same vulnerability information codified in VEX documents, discussions focus on risk treatment strategies rather than debates about whether vulnerabilities actually exist or matter.
VEX and Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory frameworks increasingly recognize software supply chain security as a critical compliance domain. VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange plays a growing role in demonstrating compliance with these requirements by providing auditable records of vulnerability awareness and response decisions.
SBOM Mandates and VEX Expectations
Government agencies and industry regulators worldwide are implementing SBOM requirements for software vendors. These mandates typically require providing machine-readable inventories of software components. As these programs mature, expectations are expanding beyond simple component lists to include vulnerability information and exploitability assessments that VEX documents provide.
Organizations subject to SBOM mandates should anticipate future VEX requirements and begin implementing VEX capabilities proactively. Building VEX generation into existing SBOM processes proves easier than retrofitting VEX later. Early adoption positions organizations to meet emerging requirements while gaining immediate security benefits.
Audit Evidence and Due Diligence
VEX documents create valuable audit trails demonstrating security due diligence. When auditors ask how an organization manages vulnerabilities in third-party components, VEX documents provide concrete evidence of systematic vulnerability assessment and risk-based decision-making. This documentation satisfies auditor requirements while demonstrating security program maturity.
Organizations should retain VEX documents as part of security records, maintaining historical data showing how vulnerability posture evolved over time. This historical perspective proves valuable during incident investigations or compliance audits where demonstrating past security decisions becomes necessary.
Challenges and Considerations for VEX Adoption
While VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange offers substantial benefits, organizations should understand implementation challenges and plan accordingly. Realistic expectations and thoughtful change management increase likelihood of successful adoption.
VEX Format Fragmentation
The existence of multiple VEX formats creates complexity for organizations consuming VEX documents from multiple vendors. A vendor might provide OpenVEX documents while another uses CycloneDX VEX and a third publishes CSAF advisories. Organizations need tooling capable of consuming all relevant formats or must work with vendors to standardize on preferred formats.
This format fragmentation likely persists during VEX's maturity phase. Organizations should plan for multi-format support rather than expecting rapid convergence on a single standard. Over time, market forces and standards bodies may drive consolidation, but near-term implementations require flexibility.
Accuracy and Liability Concerns
VEX documents make explicit claims about exploitability that carry potential liability implications. Organizations worry about incorrectly declaring a component "not affected" when a vulnerability actually poses risk. This concern sometimes creates reluctance to issue VEX documents or leads to overly conservative status declarations that reduce VEX value.
Addressing these concerns requires balanced risk assessment. While incorrect VEX declarations carry some risk, they're typically no different than other security communications organizations already produce. Clear governance, appropriate review processes, and disclaimer language help manage liability concerns without preventing valuable VEX adoption.
Resource Requirements for Analysis
Creating accurate VEX documents requires security expertise and time for vulnerability analysis. Organizations must invest in building analytical capabilities or acquiring tools that automate portions of exploitability assessment. This resource requirement can challenge smaller teams or organizations early in their security maturity journey.
Pragmatic approaches help manage these resource constraints. Organizations might start by consuming vendor-provided VEX documents before attempting internal generation. They might create VEX documents only for critical applications initially, expanding coverage as processes mature. Automated tools that suggest VEX status based on code analysis can reduce manual effort, though human review remains important for accuracy.
The Future of VEX in Security Ecosystems
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange represents an evolving standard that will continue developing as adoption increases and use cases expand. Understanding likely evolution helps organizations make forward-looking implementation decisions.
Machine Learning Enhanced VEX Generation
Emerging approaches apply machine learning to exploitability analysis, potentially automating VEX generation for common scenarios. These systems analyze code paths, security controls, and attack prerequisites to predict exploitability with reasonable accuracy. While human review remains necessary for high-stakes decisions, ML-assisted VEX generation could dramatically reduce the manual effort required for comprehensive VEX coverage.
VEX Exchange Platforms and Repositories
The security community is developing centralized repositories for VEX document sharing. These platforms allow vendors to publish VEX documents that consumers can automatically retrieve, similar to how package repositories distribute software. Standardized VEX repositories could accelerate adoption by simplifying distribution and discovery of exploitability information.
Integration with Threat Intelligence
Future VEX implementations may incorporate threat intelligence about active exploitation, combining exploitability assessment with threat landscape data. A VEX document might indicate that a vulnerability is technically exploitable but currently not being actively targeted, or conversely that a lower-severity vulnerability is seeing widespread exploitation attempts. This richer context enables even more precise risk prioritization.
Strengthening Your Software Supply Chain Security Posture
Organizations implementing VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange take a significant step toward mature software supply chain security practices. VEX transforms vulnerability management from a reactive alert-driven process to a proactive, intelligence-driven operation that focuses resources on genuine risks. The reduction in false positives alone justifies VEX adoption for most organizations, and the broader benefits of improved risk communication, faster deployment cycles, and enhanced regulatory compliance strengthen the value proposition.
Successful VEX adoption requires thoughtful planning around format selection, tooling implementation, governance policies, and team training. Organizations should start with modest scope, perhaps consuming vendor-provided VEX documents before attempting internal generation, then expanding coverage as capabilities mature. The investment in VEX capabilities pays dividends across the security organization, enabling more efficient operations and better security outcomes.
As software supply chain security continues gaining prominence in both regulatory frameworks and security best practices, VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange will become standard practice rather than emerging innovation. Organizations that build VEX capabilities now position themselves to meet future requirements while gaining immediate operational benefits. The journey toward comprehensive VEX implementation takes time, but each step forward reduces vulnerability management burden and improves security posture in measurable ways.
If your organization wants to strengthen software supply chain security practices through VEX implementation and automated vulnerability management, schedule a demo with Kusari to explore how our platform helps DevSecOps teams implement VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange alongside comprehensive supply chain security capabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions About Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange
How Does VEX Differ from Traditional Vulnerability Management?
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange represents a shift from traditional vulnerability management approaches that treat all CVEs as equal concerns requiring investigation and remediation. Traditional vulnerability scanners identify components with known CVEs and alert security teams, leaving exploitability assessment as a manual follow-up task. This approach generates high alert volumes because scanners lack context about whether vulnerable code paths are actually reachable in specific deployments.
VEX transforms this workflow by embedding exploitability context directly into vulnerability data. Rather than alerting on every CVE and requiring manual triage, VEX-aware systems receive exploitability declarations from authoritative sources and automatically filter alerts accordingly. This automation shift represents a fundamental change in how organizations approach vulnerability management at scale. The process moves from reactive triage of scanner output to proactive consumption of curated exploitability intelligence.
What Information Should a VEX Document Contain?
A comprehensive VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange document contains several critical data elements that enable accurate risk assessment and automated processing. The vulnerability identifier, typically a CVE number, establishes which specific vulnerability the VEX statement addresses. Product or component identifiers specify exactly which software the statement covers, using Package URLs (PURLs) or other standardized naming schemes to avoid ambiguity.
The exploitability status declaration represents the core assertion, indicating whether the vulnerability affects the specified component. Supporting justification explains the reasoning behind the status declaration, particularly important for "not affected" claims where consumers need to understand why vulnerable code doesn't pose risk. Optional fields include version information showing when fixes were introduced, action statements describing required response steps, and timestamps indicating when the assessment was performed. This structured data enables both human understanding and automated processing.
Who Should Generate VEX Documents in My Organization?
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange document generation responsibilities depend on your organizational structure and the software in question. For commercial off-the-shelf software your organization consumes, the vendor should generate and publish VEX documents as part of their security disclosure process. Organizations should request VEX documents from vendors and prioritize vendors who provide them when making procurement decisions.
For internally developed software, responsibility typically falls to your security team or DevSecOps function, working in collaboration with development teams who understand code internals. Product security teams, application security specialists, or dedicated vulnerability analysts often take the lead on VEX creation, conducting exploitability analysis and drafting declarations. Development teams contribute technical expertise about code functionality and architecture. The publication process should include review checkpoints ensuring accuracy before VEX documents are distributed to consumers. Clear assignment of responsibilities prevents gaps where no team owns VEX generation for specific applications.
How Do I Consume VEX Documents from Software Vendors?
Consuming VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange documents from software vendors requires establishing processes for document acquisition, validation, and integration into security workflows. Begin by identifying which vendors provide VEX documents and in what formats, adjusting your tooling to support the formats your vendors use. Many vendors publish VEX documents through security advisory pages, product documentation sites, or dedicated APIs that security tools can query programmatically.
Once acquired, VEX documents should be validated to ensure they're properly signed and come from legitimate sources, protecting against tampered or fraudulent declarations. After validation, feed VEX documents into your vulnerability management platform, allowing automated filtering of vulnerability alerts based on vendor-provided exploitability assessments. Organizations should periodically retrieve updated VEX documents as vendors conduct new analyses or release fixes, treating VEX consumption as an ongoing process rather than a one-time activity.
What Tools Support VEX Generation and Consumption?
The VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange tooling ecosystem includes both open-source projects and commercial security platforms. For VEX generation, tools like vexctl provide command-line interfaces for creating OpenVEX documents, while SBOM generation tools increasingly include VEX capabilities. Dependency-Track, Grype, and Syft represent open-source options with VEX support, offering various approaches to vulnerability analysis and VEX document creation.
Commercial software composition analysis platforms from vendors specializing in supply chain security typically include VEX capabilities as part of broader vulnerability management features. These platforms often provide more sophisticated workflows for VEX generation, including automated exploitability analysis and approval processes. Organizations should evaluate tools based on their preferred VEX format, integration requirements with existing security infrastructure, and automation capabilities. The tooling landscape continues evolving rapidly as VEX adoption increases and standards mature.
Can VEX Documents Be Automatically Generated?
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange documents can be partially automated, though complete automation remains challenging due to the nuanced analysis required for accurate exploitability assessment. Automated approaches typically analyze code to determine whether vulnerable functions are called, whether attack prerequisites exist in typical deployments, and whether security controls prevent exploitation. These analyses can suggest VEX status declarations that human reviewers validate before publication.
Static analysis tools can trace code paths to determine whether vulnerable functions are reachable from external inputs, providing strong evidence for "not affected" declarations when vulnerable code proves unreachable. Software composition analysis platforms can automatically generate VEX documents when vendors have already published exploitability information, essentially translating and republishing vendor assessments. Despite these automation capabilities, human review remains important for accuracy, particularly for high-severity vulnerabilities or security-critical systems where incorrect declarations could have serious consequences.
How Often Should VEX Documents Be Updated?
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange documents require updates whenever exploitability status changes or when new information affects previous assessments. New vulnerability disclosures trigger VEX creation or updates as organizations analyze whether newly disclosed CVEs affect their software components. Software updates may change exploitability status, requiring VEX updates to reflect that previously vulnerable code has been patched or that new features introduce previously nonexistent vulnerabilities.
Organizations should establish update cycles based on their risk tolerance and operational capacity. High-risk environments might review VEX documents weekly or triggered by specific events like new CVE publications or software releases. Less critical systems might operate on monthly review cycles. The key principle involves ensuring VEX documents accurately reflect current exploitability status rather than becoming stale documentation of outdated assessments. Version control and timestamping help consumers understand when assessments were performed and whether they should request updated VEX documents.
What Happens When a VEX Assessment Is Wrong?
Incorrect VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange assessments can occur despite careful analysis, particularly as new attack techniques emerge or when obscure code paths get discovered. Organizations that discover incorrect VEX assessments should immediately issue corrected VEX documents with updated status declarations, clearly indicating that previous assessments were incorrect and explaining what new information prompted the correction.
The response process should include notifying all VEX document consumers about the correction, investigating whether incorrect assessments affected security decisions, and conducting root cause analysis to prevent similar errors. Organizations should treat VEX corrections seriously but recognize they're a normal part of security processes where understanding evolves. Transparent handling of corrections builds trust and demonstrates mature security practices. Governance processes should define correction workflows, notification procedures, and decision authority for issuing corrected VEX documents quickly when errors are identified.
How Does VEX Relate to SBOM Requirements?
VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange and Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) serve complementary roles in software supply chain security. SBOM provides inventory data listing components present in software, while VEX provides vulnerability and exploitability context for those components. Together, they create comprehensive visibility into both what software contains and what security risks those contents present.
Many regulatory frameworks and security standards that mandate SBOM generation are beginning to reference VEX as well, recognizing that component lists alone don't provide sufficient security insight. Organizations building SBOM capabilities should plan for VEX integration from the start, selecting SBOM formats and tools that support VEX documents. CycloneDX's integrated approach embeds VEX data within SBOM documents, while other approaches keep SBOMs and VEX documents separate but linked. Either approach works provided tooling can process both data types cohesively.
What Skills Do Teams Need for VEX Implementation?
Successful VEX - Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange implementation requires teams with several key competencies spanning security analysis, software architecture understanding, and process automation. Security analysts need deep vulnerability assessment skills, including the ability to analyze CVE details, understand attack vectors, and assess whether security controls prevent exploitation. This analysis goes beyond surface-level CVE reading to detailed technical evaluation of exploitability conditions.
Software architecture knowledge helps analysts understand whether vulnerable code paths are reachable in specific product configurations or deployment scenarios. Development teams contribute this architectural understanding, making collaboration between security and development functions critical for accurate VEX generation. Automation skills allow teams to build tooling that generates VEX documents at scale, integrates VEX into CI/CD pipelines, and processes vendor-provided VEX documents automatically. Organizations may need to invest in training to build these competencies or engage external expertise during initial VEX implementation phases.