Cross-Format Semantic Preservation in Vulnerability Exploitability Exchange: A Conformance and Round-Trip Benchmark of OpenVEX 0.2.0, CycloneDX 1.6, and CSAF 2.0

Authors

Keywords:

VEX, software supply chain, SBOM, OpenVEX, CycloneDX, CSAF, semantic interoperability, vulnerability management, conformance testing

Abstract

Background: Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX) documents communicate whether a vulnerability affects a specific software product. OpenVEX, CycloneDX, and the Common Security Advisory Framework (CSAF) encode overlapping VEX concepts, but implementers lack controlled evidence about which semantics survive translation and which validators detect malformed or incomplete statements.

References

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Published

2026-10-30