OSV.dev is an open source vulnerability database and triage service developed by Google that provides accurate, ecosystem-specific vulnerability data for open source packages. Unlike generic CVE databases, OSV.dev maps vulnerabilities to specific package versions across multiple ecosystems (like PyPI, npm, Maven, Debian, etc.), enabling precise identification of affected dependencies. It was created to address the noise and inaccuracy of traditional CVE systems by offering version-specific vulnerability mappings, making it ideal for developers and security teams who need actionable data to prioritize patching. The platform supports both automated scanning via its Go-based osv-scanner and programmatic access through a REST API, making it suitable for CI/CD pipelines and enterprise vulnerability management systems.
What You Get
- Ecosystem-aware vulnerability mapping - OSV.dev maps vulnerabilities to exact package versions across PyPI, npm, Maven, Debian, Alpine, and other ecosystems, eliminating false positives from generic CVEs.
- OSV API access - A RESTful API with official Go bindings allows programmatic querying of vulnerabilities by package name and version, enabling integration into custom tooling.
- osv-scanner - A Go-based command-line scanner that checks lockfiles (Pipfile.lock, package-lock.json), Docker containers, SPDX/CycloneDX SBOMs, and git repositories for known vulnerabilities against the OSV database.
- Data dumps via GCS - Full vulnerability datasets are available as downloadable snapshots from gs://osv-vulnerabilities for offline analysis and bulk processing.
- Web UI with vulnerability details - A public web interface at osv.dev provides human-readable vulnerability reports, including affected versions, fixes, and references.
- Terraform-based GCP deployment - Full infrastructure-as-code configurations for deploying OSV’s backend services on Google Cloud Platform, including API servers, workers, and datastores.
Common Use Cases
- Building a CI/CD security pipeline - Teams integrate osv-scanner into their GitHub Actions or GitLab CI workflows to automatically scan dependencies on every commit, blocking builds if critical vulnerabilities are found.
- Managing open source risk in enterprise applications - DevOps teams use OSV’s API to query vulnerabilities programmatically in their SBOM generation tools, feeding results into compliance dashboards like Dependency-Track or GUAC.
- Problem: Generic CVEs cause false positives → Solution: OSV’s version-specific data - A developer finds a CVE for ‘requests’ but doesn’t know if their pinned version 2.25.1 is affected; OSV.dev returns precise impact data confirming it’s vulnerable and requires upgrade to 2.26.0.
- Team: Security engineers auditing third-party libraries - Teams use the osv-scanner on Docker containers to detect vulnerable packages in production images without needing source code access, using commands like
osv-scanner --docker my-app:latest.
Under The Hood
The OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities) project is a comprehensive platform designed to detect, aggregate, and distribute vulnerability data across multiple software ecosystems. It serves as both a public API and a scanner tool, enabling developers to integrate vulnerability scanning into their workflows seamlessly.
Architecture
The system adopts a modular, microservices-style architecture with clear separation between backend services, frontend interfaces, and worker components. It leverages Google Cloud infrastructure to support scalable event-driven processing.
- The system is organized around a central ‘osv’ library that promotes code reuse and consistency across services.
- Core functionality is distributed across distinct modules for API handling, website serving, and worker-based data processing.
- Extensive use of gRPC and protobufs enables contract-based communication between systems.
Tech Stack
The project utilizes a multi-language tech stack with Python and Go as primary languages, complemented by modern frontend technologies.
- Built primarily in Python 3.13 and Go, with web components powered by Lit and Material Web.
- Integrates heavily with Google Cloud services such as NDB, Storage, and Pub/Sub for scalable data handling.
- Employs Poetry for dependency management, Webpack for frontend builds, and linters like Ruff and YAPF for code formatting.
Code Quality
The codebase demonstrates a mature testing approach with extensive coverage and consistent error handling practices.
- A broad range of tests includes unittest, VCRpy for HTTP interaction recording, and Hypothesis for property-based testing.
- Error handling follows standard exception patterns, though some areas could benefit from more granular categorization.
- Style and naming conventions are reasonably consistent, though some parts show variance in structure and organization.
What Makes It Unique
OSV distinguishes itself through its unified vulnerability indexing and developer-focused tooling that bridges the gap between databases and real-world usage.
- Provides a centralized, cross-ecosystem vulnerability index that aggregates data from sources like NVD and GitHub Security Advisories.
- Employs a Kubernetes-based, pluggable worker model for flexible and extensible data ingestion and processing.
- Offers a lightweight, embeddable CLI scanner that supports multiple package managers and integrates into CI/CD pipelines.