By Christopher Robinson (CRob), Chief Security Architect, OpenSSF
VulnCon 2025 has once again proven to be an essential gathering for security professionals, fostering collaboration, innovation, and progress in vulnerability management. This matches well with the OpenSSF continued championing for transparency and best practices in open source security. Practitioners from around the world gathered in Raleigh, NC, the week of April 7-10, 2025 to share knowledge, collaborate, and raise awareness of key issues within the global vulnerability management ecosystem. We wanted to share my key takeaways from this year’s conference and highlight some of the insightful contributions from our community members.
OpenSSF’s Engagement in Cybersecurity
The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) seeks to make it easier to sustainably secure the development, maintenance, and consumption of the open source software (OSS) we all depend on. We work on this by fostering collaboration with fellow industry groups like the CVE Program and FIRST, establishing best practices like our recently released Principles for Package Repository Security guide, and developing innovative solutions like Open Source Project Security Baseline, or engaging in global cybersecurity legislation and public policy conversations with our Global Cyber Policy Working Group. Cross-industry collaboration and knowledge sharing is crucial to properly address major challenges by fostering innovation, knowledge sharing, driving sustainable growth, and maximizing the impacts of our collective efforts.
The OpenSSF was thrilled to have a notable presence at VulnCon with significant representation from our Vulnerability Disclosures Working Group and other projects throughout the week. Our engagement in this event illustrates our commitment to community engagement and further supports our strategy to actively engage with the community and facilitate collaboration across industry stakeholders to sustainably address open source software security challenges effectively with transparent operations and governance.
The partnership between the OpenSSF and the FIRST PSIRT SIG showcases how industry and upstream effectively work together on these issues that have global impacts and how we’re better collectively collaborating to solve these complex and far-reaching challenges. Through our co-work on industry standards, and frameworks, or an event like VulnCon – we’re better together!
By the Numbers
The inaugural VulnCon was a cross-industry effort that was held in March 2024. There were 360 security professionals in attendance, with an additional 239 participating virtually (599 total) with nearly 40 sessions given. 2025 saw a dramatic increase in the participants and volume of content shared! This year there were 448 in person attendees with 179 global friends watching and participating virtually (627 total). 294 organizations attended from 36 countries. The program itself almost doubled, adding a 4th full day of sessions and expanding the number of tracks provided up to 100 sessions. Of this, I am proud to say that the OpenSSF members provided over 16 sessions about our community’s work and 46 total sessions given by member representatives.
The Power of Collaboration in Vulnerability Management
This year’s VulnCon featured an amazing docket of talks and workshops spanning the broad spectrum of vulnerability management, disclosure, and coordination. Open Source Software was discussed throughout the four day event, driving home to me how much influence and exposure upstream has on industry and public policy.
Here are a few of my key takeaways:
- The Importance of Vulnerability Metadata
- Vulnerability metadata is crucial for the ecosystem, and OpenSSF’s needs and contributions in this area were front and center. There were numerous talks about OSV and how gaining deeper insights into upstream metadata helps everyone involved. Our members also helped lead and participate in discussions around SBOM, VEX, Vulnerability identifiers like CVE, and helping align software identifiers and finding paths forward around things like CPE and PURL.
- Understanding the Open Source Supply Chain
- The talk from Apache Airflow and Alpha-Omega was a great example of how projects are working with their critical dependencies. They shared how downstream users can do similar work for better security outcomes. Downstream is slowly waking to the notion that more attention, due-diligence, and participation is needed to help make the upstream open source projects they consume continue to be successful.
- EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) Takes Center Stage
- April 8 featured a dedicated track on the CRA. This law has major implications for vendors and how they assess risk and conduct due diligence across their supply chains. Open source stewards like the Linux Foundation will be essential partners as manufacturers work to meet their CRA obligations by December 2027. Our Global Cyber Policy Working Group is collaborating with key open source peers, industry partners, and the European Commission to assist open source developers, Open Source Stewards, and Manufacturers prepare for the quickly approaching 2026 and final 2027 deadlines.
- OSS Security Day: A Focused Deep Dive
- April 9 was designated as “OSS Security Day,” with 20 sessions focused on various aspects of securing open source software. One key focus was on OpenSSF’s Security Baseline. The Baseline initiative provides a structured set of security requirements aligned with international cybersecurity frameworks, standards, and regulations, aiming to bolster the security posture of open source software projects.
What’s Next? Get Involved with OpenSSF
At the end of the day, security is about effectively managing risk and preparing for the inevitable threats that loom on the horizon. Events such as VulnCon or the forthcoming CNCF-OpenSSF SecurityCon allow experts to come together, share their hard-won wisdom, raise awareness of issues of concern, and collaborate on solutions to address security issues around the world.
The conversations at VulnCon reaffirm the importance of continued engagement in the security community. If you’re interested in contributing to the advancement of open source security, I encourage you to join the OpenSSF community.
Join the OpenSSF mailing list to stay informed about upcoming events, working groups, and initiatives.
For those who couldn’t make it, you can check out recorded content from VulnCon 2024 on YouTube and look out for the VulCon 2025 playlist to get a sense of the discussions shaping the future of vulnerability management. Thank you to all of our amazing community members who were able to come out and demonstrate the power of collaboration of our open source security community and partner with our peers and downstreams within industry, security research, and global governments.
