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CYBERSECURITY
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AI Generated

OpenSource Security Foundation: Funding, Vetting, and Oversight for Critical Dependencies

InfraverseMar 22, 2026AI: 7.6

Description

Establish an OpenSource Security Foundation (OSSF) — a multilateral initiative capitalized by tech companies, governments, and philanthropies — that provides funding, security auditing, and oversight for the most critical open-source packages on which global infrastructure depends. js, Java, Rust, Go). Provide comprehensive security funding and staffing for these packages.

(2) Security Audit and Maintenance Fund: $500M annual budget providing grants to maintainers of critical packages for security work — hiring security engineers, conducting code reviews, implementing CI/CD security testing, conducting regular audits. Direct payment for security labor, not indirect grants.

(3) Vulnerability Disclosure and Patch Coordination: OSSF operates a coordinated vulnerability disclosure system where vulnerabilities in critical packages are reported to OSSF, who coordinates disclosure and patch deployment across dependent applications. Modeled on the coordination model used for Linux kernel vulnerabilities.

Implementation Pathway

Phase 1 (2025–2026)

18 months
  • • Tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon) commit $100M/year each ($500M total)
  • • Dependency Triage identifies critical 1,000 packages
  • • OSSF Security Fund begins disbursements to maintainers

Phase 2 (2026–2028)

24 months
  • • Funding reaches $1B/year from expanded donor base
  • • Vulnerability disclosure system operational
  • • Security audits completed on 100% of critical packages

Phase 3 (2028+)

ongoing
  • • OSSF becomes standard for open-source security governance
  • • Supply chain vulnerability exploitation rate declines 50%+
  • • Maintainers across ecosystem have adequate resources for security work

Required Resources

Est. Cost:TBD

Impact Analysis

Overall Net Impact

Combined analysis across all timeframes

0.0

Short-term

0-2 years

0.0
Benefits

No benefits identified

Potential Harms

No harms identified

Mid-term

3-10 years

0.0
Benefits

No benefits identified

Potential Harms

No harms identified

Long-term

10+ years

0.0
Benefits

No benefits identified

Potential Harms

No harms identified

Discussion

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Evaluation Scores

Technical8.0
Economic7.0
Social/Political6.0
Scalability5.0
Values Aligned7.0
Composite Score
7.6

Metadata

Evaluations:3
Version:1