Recent news broke that the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) officially launched the European Vulnerability Database—a publicly available resource representing Europe’s move towards greater independence in vulnerability intelligence (VI). This announcement arrives on the heels of significant volatility surrounding the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program, whose contract extension until only March 2026 has ignited widespread concerns regarding its long-term viability.

The modern threat landscape demands independent, real-time vulnerability intelligence that moves beyond centralized, delayed, and constrained systems like CVE and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). Factoring the needs of the cybersecurity industry, is it possible for the EUVD to solve these critical issues?

Can the EUVD Replace the CVE Ecosystem?

The EUVD seeks to be an alternative to CVE, but the industry needs more than a vulnerability catalog; it requires a living database. Flashpoint has closely followed the evolution and limitations of legacy vulnerability systems like CVE and NVD—and it is no secret that over-reliance on these resources has severely hindered vulnerability management programs due to their funding uncertainty, delays, incredible backlogs, gaps in coverage, and outdated structures. The emergence of alternatives, such as EUVD, is a natural outcome of the security community recognizing those same gaps.

Today’s VI has to deliver timely, relevant, and unbiased data that organizations can trust to make critical security decisions. However, as it stands today, the EUVD lacks the depth and innovation to address the real-time demands of defenders. Flashpoint remains focused on leading that charge with a more dynamic and forward-looking model that does not copy and paste the CVE program.

The Industry Needs More Than Just Coverage

In terms of coverage and mapping to CVE, Flashpoint has long surpassed it, providing customers with actionable intelligence for over 400,000 vulnerabilities. Flashpoint has also been leading the market in identifying Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)—providing customers intelligence for over 4,500 zero days and discovered or exploited-in-the-wild vulnerabilities—compared to the CISA KEV (1,377) and the EUVD (approximately 1,266).

In addition, for every vulnerability entry, Flashpoint’s vulnerability intelligence offerings provide a wealth of critical metadata such as affected versions, improved exploitability information, ransomware likelihood, social risk scoring, and much more.

Was the Release of EUVD Fueled by MITRE Funding Uncertainty?

The recent cybersecurity funding uncertainties have likely accelerated Europe’s push for vulnerability independence with the EUVD. However, it is important to note that its origins predate the recent funding concerns, dating back to a 2016 directive and a subsequent 2024 bulletin indicating its intent and development efforts. This means that the EUVD likely seeks to address long-term CVE shortcomings that have existed before the 2017 Congressional scrutiny of MITRE for coverage gaps.

The timing suggests a broader recognition that relying on a single system may present challenges. The effectiveness of these endeavors will depend on the EUVD’s ability to deliver technical innovation.

Manage Vulnerability Risk Using Flashpoint

Flashpoint’s VulnDB is the world’s most comprehensive and independent vulnerability intelligence platform. Unlike legacy vulnerability databases, our vulnerability research team actively hunts for disclosures spanning across thousands of vetted vulnerability sources, providing security teams with:

• The latest exploitability insights that inform prioritization
• Vendor-agnostic coverage for commercial and open-source software
• Enriched vulnerability metadata, including attack vectors, threat actor behavior and TTPs, with real-time updates
• Global coverage, independent from political or funding instability 

While Flashpoint will continue to monitor the progress of EUVD, we believe that organizational security requires intelligence that offers context, exploitability insights, and a holistic understanding of the threat landscape now—not delayed by future developments or years of potential evolution.

Request a demo today and discover how Flashpoint’s independent, deeply researched, and directly actionable VI delivers the intelligence you need, right now.