VEX skill

This skill is the entrypoint for VEX operations in hve-core. It combines the OpenVEX v0.2.0 specification reference with reusable management playbooks for implementing, reviewing, and validating VEX documents. The normative reference material below remains the authoritative source for schema, status logic, and public-source guidance.

VEX management playbooks

Detection, drafting, and attestation are workflow-owned automation. This skill supplies the reusable procedures, mutation rules, and review criteria. The CVE Analyzer subagent performs the per-CVE exploitability analysis that feeds those workflows.

Implement VEX in a target project

Use this playbook when standing up VEX in a target project. Scaffold the VEX document under security/vex, wire the vex-detect and vex-draft workflows, reference the PR-body scaffold in assets/pr-body-scaffold.yml, connect the dedicated reusable VEX attestation workflow for provenance and OpenVEX-over-SBOM attestation, and set CODEOWNERS on the VEX document. Use references/vex-status-logic.md and the vex-standards.instructions.md instructions for the detailed rules.

Review and validate VEX

Use this playbook when reviewing drafted VEX statements. Assess the status determination against the evidence and confidence bands, honor the document mutation and forbidden-transition contract, and validate the release attestation output. Attestation generation is owned by the dedicated reusable VEX attestation workflow, not by the reviewer. The forthcoming tested gate module and tests will live in this skill so the workflow and interactive entry points can share the same rules.

VEX statuses

Status	Meaning
not_affected	The vulnerability is not exploitable in this product. Requires a justification or impact_statement.
affected	The vulnerability is exploitable. Requires an action_statement describing remediation.
fixed	The vulnerability was present but has been remediated in this product version.
under_investigation	The author is evaluating whether the vulnerability affects this product. Safe default for uncertain cases.

Justification codes for not_affected

When a statement uses not_affected status, it must include a machine-readable justification:

Code	Meaning
component_not_present	The vulnerable component is not included in the product.
vulnerable_code_not_present	The component is present but the vulnerable code is not included.
vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path	The vulnerable code is present but cannot be reached at runtime.
vulnerable_code_cannot_be_controlled_by_adversary	The code is reachable but an attacker cannot influence the inputs.
inline_mitigations_already_exist	Existing controls prevent exploitation of the vulnerability.

Product identifiers

Products use Package URL (PURL) format (for example, pkg:npm/@microsoft/hve-core@3.10.0).

Normative references

1. OpenVEX JSON Schema Reference: field definitions, required versus optional fields, and example documents.
2. VEX Status Logic: status determination decision tree, evidence requirements per status, and forbidden transitions.
3. CVE Data Sources: OSV.dev, NVD, and GitHub Advisory Database API references with licensing posture.

Skill layout

• SKILL.md: this file (skill entrypoint).
• references/: normative reference documents.
  • openvex-schema.md: JSON schema reference with field definitions and examples.
  • vex-status-logic.md: status determination decision tree and forbidden transitions.
  • cve-data-sources.md: CVE data source API references and licensing.

Attribution and licensing

The OpenVEX specification reference content in this skill is derived from the OpenVEX Community specification and remains attributed to the OpenVEX Community. The reusable VEX management playbooks and the surrounding guidance in this skill are hve-core-authored content.

Licenses are allocated per file in the table below. The frontmatter expression is the conjunction of every license present in the package, so a redistributor of the whole package complies with all of them; the table states which license actually governs each file.

Path	License	Origin
references/openvex-schema.md	Apache-2.0	Derived from OpenVEX spec
references/vex-status-logic.md	Apache-2.0	Derived from OpenVEX spec
references/cve-data-sources.md	CC-BY-4.0	hve-core-authored
SKILL.md, playbooks, and remaining package content	CC-BY-4.0	hve-core-authored

Third-Party Attribution

Attribute	Value
Specification	OpenVEX Specification v0.2.0
Copyright	© OpenVEX Contributors
License	Apache License 2.0
Source	https://github.com/openvex/spec/blob/main/OPENVEX-SPEC.md
Modifications	Specification restructured into agent-consumable reference documents with added status determination logic, evidence requirements, and CVE data source guidance.