README.md

---
viewer: false
license: mit
language:
- en
tags:
- vulnerabilities
- vdb
- sca
- osv
- nvd
- ghsa
- vers
- purl
---

This dataset comprises application and OS vulnerabilities aggregated from multiple sources, including OSV, GitHub, NVD, and Linux vendor feeds, in the form of SQLite data files (.vdb6).

## Vulnerability Data sources

- Linux [vuln-list](https://github.com/appthreat/vuln-list)
- OSV (1)
- NVD
- GitHub

## Linux distros

- AlmaLinux
- Debian
- Alpine
- Amazon Linux
- Arch Linux
- RHEL/CentOS
- Rocky Linux
- Ubuntu
- OpenSUSE
- Photon
- Chainguard
- Wolfi OS

## Database files

The vulnerability database comprises two SQLite database files.

- data.index.vdb6 - A smaller index database optimized for quick purl or cpe string searches and vers-based range comparisons.
- data.vdb6 - Full CVE source database containing normalized data in CVE 5.1 specification formation and purl prefix.

### cve_index schema

```sql
CREATE TABLE if not exists cve_index(
  cve_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  type TEXT NOT NULL,
  namespace TEXT,
  name TEXT NOT NULL,
  vers TEXT NOT NULL,
  purl_prefix TEXT NOT NULL
)
```

### cve_data schema

```sql
CREATE TABLE if not exists cve_data(
  cve_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  type TEXT NOT NULL,
  namespace TEXT,
  name TEXT NOT NULL,
  source_data BLOB NOT NULL,
  override_data BLOB,
  source_data_hash TEXT NOT NULL,
  vers TEXT NOT NULL,
  purl_prefix TEXT NOT NULL
)
```

## Folders

 - app - Application vulnerabilities from 2018. Useful for secure code reviews.
 - app-2y - Application vulnerabilities from 2024. Useful to check for the latest vulnerabilities quickly.
 - app-10y - Application vulnerabilities from 2014.
 - app-os - Application and OS vulnerabilities from 2018. Useful for lifecycle analysis and container SBOM scans.
 - app-os-10y - Application and OS vulnerabilities from 2014.

Download data.vdb6 and data.index.vdb6 files from a single folder of your choice.

## Searching for CVEs

Use the smaller index database for all search operations.

### Searching by purl

Given a purl string (`purl_str`), perform the following steps to convert this into a suitable purl prefix (`purl_prefix`) string:

In most cases, a purl prefix is a substring at index 0 after a split by "@". Eg: `purl_prefix = purl_str.split("@")[0]`.

A more robust approach:

- Parse and validate the string using a suitable [library](https://github.com/package-url/). Retain the parsed purl object (`purl_obj`)
- Construct a purl prefix string with the following logic:
  - Set the value for `purl_prefix` to `"pkg:" + purl_obj["type"]`
  - If there is a namespace, append it to purl_prefix after the slash character. Eg: `purl_prefix = purl_prefix + "/" + purl_obj['namespace']`
  - Optional for Linux distros: If there is a qualifier string with the name `distro_name`, append it to the purl_prefix after the slash character. Eg: `purl_prefix = purl_prefix + "/" + purl_obj['qualifiers']['distro_name']`
  - Append the name after the slash character. Eg: `purl_prefix = purl_prefix + "/" + purl_obj['name']`

Use the below SQL query to search by purl_prefix:

```
SELECT DISTINCT cve_id, type, namespace, name, vers, purl_prefix FROM cve_index where purl_prefix = ?;
```

### Searching by cpe

Parse the cpe string to extract the vendor, product, and version. The regex for python is shown below:

```python
import re

CPE_FULL_REGEX = re.compile(
    "cpe:?:[^:]+:(?P<cve_type>[^:]+):(?P<vendor>[^:]+):(?P<package>[^:]+):(?P<version>[^:]+):(?P<update>[^:]+):(?P<edition>[^:]+):(?P<lang>[^:]+):(?P<sw_edition>[^:]+):(?P<target_sw>[^:]+):(?P<target_hw>[^:]+):(?P<other>[^:]+)"
)
```

In the `cve_index` table, vendor maps to namespace and package maps to name. The SQL query is below:

```sql
SELECT DISTINCT cve_id, type, namespace, name, vers, purl_prefix FROM cve_index where namespace = ? AND name = ?;
```

### Comparing version ranges using vers

Refer to the vers [documentation](https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec/blob/version-range-spec/VERSION-RANGE-SPEC.rst) for information regarding vers and a logic to parse and check if a version is within a range. To simplify the logic, a value from the vers column in `cve_index` would contain only a maximum of two constraints (one greater than and one lesser than).

## Combining data

Search the `cve_index` table in the index database first to retrieve any matching cve_id and purl_prefix values. Use these two column values to retrieve the full CVE source information from the `cve_data` table. An example query is shown below:

```sql
SELECT DISTINCT cve_id, type, namespace, name, source_data_hash, json(source_data), json(override_data), vers, purl_prefix FROM cve_data
    WHERE cve_id = ? AND vers = ? AND purl_prefix = ?
    GROUP BY purl_prefix
    ORDER BY cve_id DESC;
```

Use the `source_data_hash` values to filter out any duplicate results for the same CVE. Duplicate results are possible when multiple vers match the same CVE and purl prefixes.

## Citation

Use the below citation in your research.

```text
@misc{vdb,
  author = {Team AppThreat},
  month = May,
  title = {{AppThreat vulnerability-db}},
  howpublished = {{https://huggingface.co/datasets/AppThreat/vdb}},
  year = {2025}
}
```