CVE Chaos: The Fragmented Future of Vulnerability Tracking, Bad Bots & Real-Time Threat Intel

Forecast = Prepare for scattered CVEs, rising bot storms, and real-time threat lightning. Keep your digital umbrellas handy!

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On this episode of Storm⚡️Watch, we’re breaking down the latest shifts in the vulnerability tracking landscape, starting with the ongoing turbulence in the CVE program. As the MITRE-run CVE system faces funding uncertainty and a potential transition to nonprofit status, the global security community is rapidly adapting. New standards and databases are emerging to fill the gaps—Europe’s ENISA is rolling out the EU Vulnerability Database to ensure regional control, while China continues to operate its own state-mandated systems. Meanwhile, the CVE ecosystem’s chronic delays and the NVD’s new “Deferred” status for tens of thousands of older vulnerabilities are pushing teams to look elsewhere for timely, enriched vulnerability data. Open-source projects like OSV.dev and commercial players such as VulnCheck and Snyk are stepping up, offering real-time enrichment, exploit intelligence, and predictive scoring to help organizations prioritize what matters most. The result is a fragmented but innovative patchwork of regional, decentralized, open-source, and commercial solutions, with hybrid approaches quickly becoming the norm for defenders worldwide.

We’re also diving into Imperva’s 2024 Bad Bot Report, which reveals that nearly a third of all internet traffic last year came from malicious bots. These bots are getting more sophisticated—using residential proxies, mimicking human behavior, and bypassing traditional defenses. The report highlights a surge in account takeover attacks and shows that industries like entertainment and retail are especially hard hit, with bot traffic now outpacing human visitors in some sectors. The rise of simple bots, fueled by easy-to-use AI tools, is reshaping the threat landscape, while advanced and evasive bots continue to challenge even the best detection systems.

On the threat intelligence front, GreyNoise has just launched its Global Observation Grid—now the largest deception sensor network in the world, with thousands of sensors in over 80 countries. This expansion enables real-time, verifiable intelligence on internet scanning and exploitation, helping defenders cut through the noise and focus on the threats that matter. GreyNoise’s latest research shows attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities within hours of disclosure, with a significant portion of attacks targeting legacy flaws from years past. Their data-driven insights are empowering security teams to prioritize patching and response based on what’s actually being exploited in the wild, not just theoretical risk.

We’re also spotlighting Censys and its tools for tracking botnets and advanced threats, including collaborative projects with GreyNoise and CursorAI. Their automated infrastructure mapping and pivoting capabilities are helping researchers quickly identify related malicious hosts and uncover the infrastructure behind large-scale attacks.

Finally, VulnCheck continues to bridge the gap during the CVE program’s uncertainty, offering autonomous enrichment, real-time exploit tracking, and comprehensive coverage—including for CVEs that NVD has deprioritized. Their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and enhanced NVD++ service are giving defenders a broader, faster view of the threat landscape, often surfacing critical exploitation activity weeks before it’s reflected in official government feeds.

As the vulnerability management ecosystem splinters and evolves, organizations are being forced to rethink their strategies—embracing a mix of regional, open-source, and commercial intelligence to maintain visibility and stay ahead of attackers. The days of relying on a single source of truth for vulnerability data are over, and the future is all about agility, automation, and real-time insight.

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