Threat intelligence firm Flashpoint noted in March 2024 it was aware of 100,000 vulnerabilities with no CVE number and consequently no inclusion in NVD. More worryingly, it said that 330 of these vulnerabilities (with no CVE number) had been exploited in the wild.. Since the start of 2024 there have been a total of 6,171 total CVE IDs with only 3,625 being enriched by NVD. That leaves a gap of 2,546 (42%!) IDs.
Despite all those private companies and various OSS projects being willing to contribute ideas, infrastructure and code, they have somehow failed to coalesce into a decentralized replacement for NVD, built on CC0 data and OSS tooling.
I tried to look over the history and I only see a funding increase, CISA cut $3.7 million at the end of 2023 for the next year and in response NIST reallocated extra funding to NVD: $8.5 million in 2024
A funding shortfall and strain isn't a funding cut. And from what I see there was a funding increase.
> According to NIST, while the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is processing incoming CVEs at the same rate as before the slowdown in spring and early summer 2024, a 32 percent jump in submissions last year means that the backlog continues to grow.
> CISA had previously been supporting the NIST NVD program with approximately $3.7 million per year in interagency funding, which they have discontinued
2024
> While NIST has since reallocated $8.5 million to NVD for fiscal years 2024 and 2025
Assuming that's spread over both years it wasn't as big of an increase as I said, but is still an increase even inflation adjusted.
> 2025 article claims 30% increase in 2024 workload
Underfunding in the face of more workload isn't itself a funding cut.
> While NIST has since reallocated $8.5 million to NVD for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, this funding remains a fraction of the $300 million to $400 million estimated to be needed annually to fully restore capacity, with an additional $120 million to $150 million required to prevent further system “deterioration.”
Did NVD receive 300MM annual funding pre-2024? That would be a 98% funding cut.
For decades, the US could be counted upon to fund things with little immediate benefit but massive long-term positive externalities. I don't think its likely that the republican party will "go back to normal" post-Trump, so we can all kiss the long-term reputation building that American hegemony relied upon goodbye. Short of a great depression-esque political reset, I do not see things changing for the better.
