IBM, Red Hat Offer Free Tool to Secure Open Source Software

IBM and Red Hat have launched a new program to provide free access to Lightwell, an AI-driven tool that helps secure open source software, to over 185 leading research universities and 100 major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and think tanks in the United States.

The program aims to help institutions strengthen their open source software supporting research, education, and mission-critical work by providing access to validated fixes for vulnerabilities.

Lightwell combines AI-driven automation with human engineering expertise to identify, validate, and remediate vulnerabilities across critical software dependencies.

This initiative is a part of IBM's $5 billion commitment to secure the open source software supply chain, which was launched in May 2026. Since its introduction, Lightwell has expanded the scale of validated open source remediation available to participating organizations, from 6,500 to more than 8,000 validated and remediated package versions, including fixes for 64 previously undisclosed vulnerabilities.