Eclipse Foundation releases free toolkit to help SMEs prepare for the EU Cyber Resilience Act. Thursday, September 10, 2026 - 07:00 by Natalia Loungou BRUSSELS - 10 September 2026 - The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world's largest open source software foundations, today announced the availability of a free, open source toolkit developed through the EU-funded OCCTET project to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and open source projects prepare for the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). The toolkit translates complex regulatory requirements into practical steps that organisations can incorporate into their software development and security processes. It helps them assess their readiness, identify which open source components are used in their products, manage vulnerabilities, and document how security risks are being addressed. The release comes as the CRA's first obligations take effect. Beginning 11 September 2026, manufacturers must report actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe incidents affecting the security of products with digital elements made available in the European Union. The CRA's broader requirements will apply from 11 December 2027. Early use of the OCCTET self-assessment platform has identified a common challenge: many SMEs have security measures in place but lack the visibility, documentation, and consistent processes needed to demonstrate how software risks are being managed. "For organisations with limited compliance resources, preparing for the CRA is a major undertaking," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. "OCCTET makes that work more manageable by bringing together tools that help them understand their obligations, identify and address vulnerabilities, and maintain the records needed to support compliance." A practical path from assessment to action. The OCCTET toolkit combines multiple services that support organisations from initial assessment through vulnerability management and documentation. SMEs and open source projects can now access and test the following services: * Assess readiness: The CRA Self-Assessment Portal helps SMEs understand how the CRA applies to them, evaluate their current readiness, and identify areas requiring attention. The free, guided assessment translates CRA provisions into structured questions, scoring, and practical recommendations. * Identify software components: Eclipse Apoapsis (OCCTET instance) identifies open source components, dependencies, and licenses, based on the OSS Review Toolkit and known vulnerabilities. It can also generate a range of CRA-ready reports and compliance artefacts, including Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), which provide a standardised inventory of the software components contained in a product. * Review findings and take action: Bitsea Curator (OCCTET instance) combines automated analysis with human review to help users verify software information, assess whether vulnerabilities affect their products, prioritise issues, and document their decisions. It also supports the creation of Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX) reports, which record whether a product is affected by a known vulnerability. * Reuse shared software information: The Federated OSS Assessment Database, vulnerablecode.io, provides information about open source packages, including their origins, licenses, security advisories, vulnerabilities, and reference SBOMs. Its public PurlDB demonstrator supports reference SBOM generation for more than 20 million packages, while its VulnerableCode integration connects vulnerability information with the software packages it affects. The toolkit has been validated against complex, real-world software dependency scenarios across ten different technology ecosystems. Testing has included widely used open source projects, large-scale analysis of the Eclipse Foundation's entire project portfolio, as well as a growing number of real-world SME use cases. This extensive validation demonstrates the toolkit's ability to operate across diverse technologies, project sizes, and software supply chains. This testing has demonstrated its ability to analyse complex dependency structures, identify vulnerabilities, support human review, and monitor security issues over time. Get started with OCCTET. The Open Source Compliance: Comprehensive Techniques and Essential Tools (OCCTET) project brings together industry leaders, cybersecurity experts, SME representatives, and open source organisations to make software security and CRA preparation more accessible, transparent, and cost-effective. SMEs and open source projects can explore the toolkit and available resources at occtet.eu. Organisations interested in testing the services using real products and development workflows, and providing feedback to support their continued improvement, can visit the OCCTET Get Engaged page. OCCTET complements the Eclipse Foundation's broader work to help organisations and open source communities prepare for the CRA. Through the Open Regulatory Compliance (ORC) Working Group, participants are developing community-driven specifications, guidance, training, and other resources to support CRA implementation across the open source ecosystem. These resources include the free ORC Learning Hub, which provides practical, role-specific training to help open source developers, maintainers, project stewards, product teams, and security and compliance professionals understand how the CRA applies to their work and put its requirements into practice. The community also comes together through Code & Compliance, the flagship ORC event for open source developers, project stewards, legal and compliance professionals, policymakers, and industry leaders. The next event takes place on 27 October 2026 in Brussels, providing a forum to exchange experiences, share practical guidance, and explore how the CRA and other emerging digital regulations are affecting the open source ecosystem. Register now to join the discussion. About the OCCTET project. Open Source Compliance: Comprehensive Techniques and Essential Tools (OCCTET) is an EU-funded initiative focused on helping SMEs and open source projects navigate cybersecurity and compliance requirements under the Cyber Resilience Act. Coordinated by the Eclipse Foundation, the project is developing an integrated suite of free, open source tools for readiness assessment, software dependency analysis, vulnerability management, SBOM generation, and compliance documentation. The OCCTET project has received funding from the Digital Europe Programme under grant agreement No. 101190474. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. The European Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein. About the Eclipse Foundation. The Eclipse Foundation provides a global community of individuals and organisations with a vendor-neutral, business-friendly environment for open source collaboration and innovation. Eclipse Group host Adoptium, the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, Open VSX, Software Defined Vehicle, and more than 450 high-impact open source projects. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Eclipse Group is an international non-profit association supported by over 300 members. Its events, including Open Community Experience (OCX), bring together developers, industry leaders, and researchers from around the world. To learn more, follow Eclipse Group on X and LinkedIn, or visit eclipse.org. Media contacts: Schwartz Public Relations Julia Rauch/Luca Myska Sendlinger Straße 42A 80331 München +49 (89) 211 871 -43/ -52 514 Media Ltd (France, Italy, Spain) Benoit Simoneau M: +44 (0) 7891 920 370 Nichols Communications (Global Press Contact) Jay Nichols +1 408-772-1551

Eclipse Foundation and OWASP join forces to strengthen Open Source security and CRA readiness. Strategic collaboration will unite two global open source communities to advance security practices, support maintainers and stewards, and help organisations prepare for the EU Cyber Resilience Act. BRUSSELS and WILMINGTON, Del., July 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world's largest open source software foundations, and the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP), a global nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving software security, today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen open source security and support industry readiness for the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). The agreement combines the Eclipse Foundation's expertise in open source governance, industry collaboration, and regulatory readiness with OWASP's globally recognised security projects, standards, education, and community. The organisations will develop resources to help open source maintainers, stewards, manufacturers, and software teams strengthen security practices and respond to evolving regulatory requirements. "Open source is critical digital infrastructure, but responsibility for securing it is distributed across a complex global ecosystem," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. "With AI accelerating both software development and vulnerability discovery, and the first CRA obligations taking effect in a matter of weeks, the need for practical, coordinated action is increasingly urgent. By bringing together the expertise and communities of the Eclipse Foundation and OWASP, we can reduce fragmentation and help organisations put stronger security and regulatory readiness practices into action." The CRA introduces mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements made available in the EU, including products built with or dependent on open source software. Its vulnerability and incident reporting obligations for manufacturers take effect on 11 September 2026, requiring organisations to establish the processes and technical capabilities needed to identify, manage, and report serious security issues. The regulation also formally recognises open source software stewards as important participants in the software supply chain. Although their responsibilities differ from those of commercial manufacturers, stewards will play an important role in supporting secure development, vulnerability management, transparency, and cooperation across the open source ecosystem. "Security guidance only makes a difference when developers, maintainers, and organisations can put it into practice," said Andrew van der Stock, executive director of the OWASP Foundation. "By working with the Eclipse Foundation, we can extend the reach and impact of OWASP's security expertise while giving open source communities clearer, more actionable ways to strengthen the software supply chain and prepare for the CRA." Although the CRA is a European regulation, its implications extend globally. Any organisation that makes software-enabled products available in the EU must understand its responsibilities, including how it develops, integrates, documents, maintains, and secures the open source components on which those products depend. With more than 96% of commercial codebases containing open source software, according to the OpenLogic 2026 State of Open Source Report, CRA readiness is an urgent consideration across the global software industry. Under the MoU, the Eclipse Foundation and OWASP intend to collaborate across five principal areas: * CRA readiness for the open source ecosystem * Alignment and interoperability among security practices and frameworks * Joint education and community engagement * Open source stewardship and maintainer support * Policy and regulatory education Initial priorities are expected to include practical guidance for open source stewards, joint CRA readiness webinars, resources supporting software bill of materials (SBOM) adoption and software supply chain security, and community events, workshops, and maintainer roundtables. The two organisations also participate jointly in the Eclipse Foundation's Open Regulatory Compliance Working Group (ORC WG), which brings together open source foundations, global enterprises, and industry stakeholders to develop practical resources for navigating the growing impact of software regulation on open source. The organisations do not intend to create competing security frameworks. Instead, they will work to align and amplify existing initiatives, improve adoption, and help organisations embed sustainable security and regulatory readiness practices across the software lifecycle. About OWASP The OWASP Foundation is a nonprofit organisation that works to improve software security. Through community-led open source software projects, over 260 local chapters worldwide, tens of thousands of members, and leading educational and training conferences, the OWASP Foundation is the source for developers and technologists to secure the web. For nearly two decades, corporations, foundations, developers, and volunteers have supported the OWASP Foundation and its work. To learn more or to become a member, visit owasp.org. About the Eclipse Foundation The Eclipse Foundation provides a global community of individuals and organisations with a vendor-neutral, business-friendly environment for open source collaboration and innovation. We host Adoptium, the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, Open VSX, Software Defined Vehicle, and more than 450 high-impact open source projects. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, we are an international non-profit association supported by over 300 members. Our events, including Open Community Experience (OCX), bring together developers, industry leaders, and researchers from around the world. To learn more, follow us on X and LinkedIn, or visit eclipse.org. Media contacts: Schwartz Public Relations Julia Rauch/Luca Myska Sendlinger Straße 42A 80331 München [email protected] +49 (89) 211 871 -43/ -52 514 Media Ltd (France, Italy, Spain) Benoit Simoneau [email protected] M: +44 (0) 7891 920 370 Nichols Communications (Global Press Contact) Jay Nichols [email protected] +1 408-772-1551

The Eclipse Foundation and the Open Regulatory Compliance Working Group have launched the ORC Learning Hub, a free education initiative to help open source developers and software teams prepare for the EU's Cyber Resilience Act ahead of the September 2026 deadline. The hub provides role-specific training for developers, maintainers, project stewards, product teams, security professionals and legal teams. Whilst the CRA is European regulation, its impact is global, affecting any organisation distributing software-enabled products in the EU market. According to the OpenLogic 2026 State of Open Source Report, over 96% of commercial codebases contain open source software. The initiative addresses a gap in practical guidance by delivering actionable, role-specific education aligned with modern software development practices.