Install vexctl with Homebrew, Nix, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• vexctl

Project history

The vexctl repository was created in January 2023, the same month Chainguard publicly introduced OpenVEX as a lightweight specification, library, and tool suite aligned with the VEX minimum requirements work associated with NTIA and CISA. The project later became part of OpenSSF's OpenVEX home, where OpenSSF describes vexctl as the flagship CLI for creating, merging, and attesting OpenVEX documents.

OpenVEX sits among several VEX encodings and security-advisory formats. OpenSSF documentation frames OpenVEX as an interoperable and embeddable implementation intended to work independently of a particular SBOM format, alongside CSAF, CycloneDX, and SPDX-based VEX approaches.

Adoption history

By late 2023, OpenSSF described OpenVEX as having a growing community of adopters, with support from companies including Anchore, Chainguard, Intel, and Microsoft. The adoption story is tied less to vexctl as a standalone utility and more to the need for machine-readable vulnerability-status signals that can reduce scanner noise in SBOM-driven workflows.

Canonical's Ubuntu VEX data feed later chose the OpenVEX specification maintained by OpenSSF, citing its clarity, minimalism, compliance, interoperability, and embeddability. That kind of downstream use makes vexctl relevant as a reference CLI for generating and manipulating the same class of documents.

How it is used

Typical vexctl usage is in supply-chain security and vulnerability-management pipelines: creating OpenVEX statements for products and CVEs, applying those statements to scanner output, merging documents, and producing attestations. Tutorials commonly pair it with scanners such as Trivy to suppress or explain false-positive vulnerability findings without discarding the underlying scan data.

Why package nerds care

For package maintainers, vexctl is a small but important glue tool in the SBOM/VEX ecosystem. It gives open-source producers a way to publish negative security advisories in a machine-readable format, and gives consumers a command-line path to feed that context into automated vulnerability triage.

Timeline

• 2023-01: The openvex/vexctl GitHub repository was created, and Chainguard introduced OpenVEX as an open-source VEX specification and tool suite.
• 2023-07: OpenSSF's Vulnerability Disclosures Working Group discussed planned updates to both the OpenVEX specification and vexctl tooling after OpenVEX's first months as an OpenSSF project.
• 2023-12: OpenSSF described OpenVEX as housed in OpenSSF and supported by a growing community of adopters.
• 2026-06: GitHub releases show vexctl continuing with v0.4.x releases.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/openvex/vexctl
• https://api.github.com/repos/openvex/vexctl/releases?per_page=3
• https://documentation.ubuntu.com/security/security-updates/vex/
• https://edu.chainguard.dev/open-source/sbom/what-is-openvex/
• https://github.com/openvex/vexctl
• https://openssf.org/blog/2023/09/07/vdr-vex-openvex-and-csaf/
• https://openssf.org/blog/2023/12/20/openvex-and-open-source-vulnerability-scanners-how-the-dynamic-duo-improves-vulnerability-management/
• https://openssf.org/projects/openvex/