CRA Harmonised standards (M/606) – October 2026

Which CRA harmonised standard applies to your product, and how far along is it? It is the question I get asked most often by manufacturers, conformity assessment bodies and trade associations. The answer is spread across three European Standardisation Organisations, six technical bodies and more than forty work items, so I mapped every standard under standardisation request M/606 on one page: who is writing it, which CRA product category it covers, and where it stands as of mid-October 2026.

CRA Standards overview

How to read the map

Each box is one deliverable. The number in brackets, for example (#15), is the item in the M/606 standardisation request it answers. The coloured bar on the left shows which CRA category the item relates to:

  • Horizontal: standards that apply to all products with digital elements (the EN 40000-1 series).
  • Important products, Class I and Class II: vertical standards for the product categories listed in Annex III of the CRA.
  • Critical products: vertical standards for the categories in Annex IV.
  • Not in M/606: related work that supports the CRA but is not itself a request deliverable, such as the EN 18037 guidance documents and the IEC 62443 amendments.

The badge on each box shows the current stage. The simplified path a standard follows is: NWI → prEN draft → prEN vote → EN draft → EN vote (Formal Vote) → EN adoption → HAS assessment → citation in the Official Journal. Only after citation in the Official Journal of the European Union does a harmonised standard give manufacturers presumption of conformity with the CRA.

Milestone to watch: EN 40000-1-3 (vulnerability handling)

The draft of EN 40000-1-3 for Formal Vote has been agreed in CEN/CLC/JTC 13 WG 9. If no objections are raised by 23 October 2026, it moves to Formal Vote. It would then join EN 40000-1-1 and EN 40000-1-2, which have already been adopted as European Standards.

As Rapporteur in WG 9, I have followed this document from its first working draft through more than 2,000 resolved comments. If you want the background on how it changed, see my earlier article: prEN 40000-1-3 Reaches the Pre-Formal Vote HAS Assessment.

CEN/CLC JTC 13 WG 9: the horizontal foundation is in place

The horizontal standards apply to every product with digital elements, whatever its category. Two of them are already adopted:

  • EN 40000-1-2 covers principles, product risk management and the lifecycle.
  • EN 40000-1-1 covers vocabulary.

EN 40000-1-4 (generic security requirements) answers M/606 items #2 to #14 and contains the catalogue of security controls. It is awaiting HAS comments and addressing them to prepare for enquiry.

StandardM/606 itemScopeStatus
EN 40000-1-1–VocabularyAdopted
EN 40000-1-2#1Principles, risk management, lifecycleAdopted
EN 40000-1-3#15Vulnerability handlingFormal Vote pending
EN 40000-1-4#2–14Generic security requirementsprEN draft
TR (no. tbc)–Proof of concept: EN 18037 for the CRAprEN draft
TS (no. tbc)–Guidance: applying EN 18037 for the CRAprEN draft

ETSI TC CYBER: the vertical standards are moving fast

ETSI is writing the vertical standards for most important products. All 17 of its CRA enquiry drafts have now received the European Commission’s second HAS assessment.

  • 10 drafts have already addressed the comments and are heading for final endorsement. They cover password managers, anti-malware, boot managers, routers and switches, virtual assistants, smart home security, connected toys, wearables, hypervisors and firewalls/IDS/IPS.
  • 7 drafts are still working through the HAS comments. They cover browsers, VPNs, network management, SIEM, PKI software, network interfaces and operating systems.
StandardM/606 itemProduct categoryCRA classStatus
EN 304 617#17a+bBrowsersClass IprEN vote
EN 304 618#18Password managersClass IEN draft
EN 304 619#19Anti-malwareClass IEN draft
EN 304 620#20aVPNClass IprEN vote
EN 304 621#21aNetwork managementClass IprEN vote
EN 304 622#22aSIEMClass IprEN vote
EN 304 623#23Boot managersClass IEN draft
EN 304 624#24PKI softwareClass IprEN vote
EN 304 625#25aNetwork interfacesClass IprEN vote
EN 304 626#26Operating systemsClass IprEN vote
EN 304 627#27aRouters / switchesClass IEN draft
EN 304 631#31Virtual assistantsClass IEN draft
EN 304 632#32Smart home securityClass IEN draft
EN 304 633#33Connected toysClass IEN draft
EN 304 634#34WearablesClass IEN draft
EN 304 635#35Hypervisors / container runtime systemsClass IIEN draft
EN 304 636#36aFirewalls, IDS / IPSClass IIEN draft
EN 304 642–Telecom network functionsNot in M/606prEN draft

CLC/TC 65X: OT has its own track

For operational technology, CLC/TC 65X is writing the EN 50770 security profiles on top of IEC 62443. Several product categories therefore have two deliverables. Firewalls, for example, are covered by ETSI as item #36a and by EN 50770-1 as item #36b. The same pattern applies to network management, network interfaces, VPN, routers and SIEM.

EN 50770-1 has been split into firewalls (-1-1) and IDS/IPS (-1-2). All EN 50770 parts are currently at prEN draft stage.

StandardM/606 itemProduct categoryCRA classStatus
EN 50770-1-1#36bFirewallsClass IIprEN draft
EN 50770-1-2#36bIDS / IPSClass IIprEN draft
EN 50770-2#21bNetwork managementClass IprEN draft
EN 50770-3#25bNetwork interfacesClass IprEN draft
EN 50770-4#20bVPNClass IprEN draft
EN 50770-5#27bRouters, switchesClass IprEN draft
EN 50770-6#22bSIEMClass IprEN draft
EN IEC 62443-4-1/prAA–Secure development lifecycleNot in M/606EN draft
EN IEC 62443-4-2/prAA–Component requirementsNot in M/606EN draft
EN IEC 62443-3-3/prAA–System requirements and security levelsNot in M/606NWI

Hardware and critical products: very different stages

Three committees cover hardware and the critical products in Annex IV:

  • CLC/TC 47X covers semiconductors and trusted chips.
  • CEN/TC 224 covers personal identification devices.
  • CEN/CLC JTC 13 WG 6 covers smart meter gateways.

The critical products are at very different stages:

  • The smartcard standards, EN 40002-3 (platforms) and EN 18330 (application layer), are in final drafting.
  • The standard for hardware devices with security boxes, EN 40000-11, is being reworked.
  • Smart meter gateways are still at an early draft stage.
CommitteeStandardM/606 itemProduct categoryCRA classStatus
CLC/TC 47XEN 40001-3 / prEN 50765#28, #29Microprocessors and microcontrollersClass IEN draft
CLC/TC 47XEN 40004-3 / prEN 50767#30FPGAs and ASICsClass IprEN vote
CLC/TC 47XEN 40003-3 / prEN 50766#37, #38Tamper-resistant MPUs / MCUsClass IIEN draft
CLC/TC 47XEN 40002-3 / prEN 50764#41aSmartcard and secure element platformsCriticalEN draft
CEN/TC 224EN 40000-10#16Identity and privileged access managementClass IEN draft
CEN/TC 224EN 40000-11#39Hardware devices with security boxesCriticalEN draft
CEN/TC 224EN 18330#41bSmartcards and secure elements, application layerCriticalEN draft
CEN/CLC JTC 13 WG 6EN (no. tbc)#40Smart meter gatewaysCriticalprEN draft

What this means for manufacturers

Don’t wait for the Official Journal citation. The CRA’s reporting obligations have applied since 11 September 2026, and the main obligations follow on 11 December 2027. The time between now and then is short compared with a typical product development cycle.

  1. Find your product category on the map. Check whether your product is a default product, an important product (Class I or II) or a critical product. This determines which conformity assessment route is open to you.
  2. Identify your vertical standard, if one exists, and check where it stands. If you build for both IT and OT markets, look at both the ETSI and the EN 50770 track.
  3. Build on the horizontal standards. EN 40000-1-2 is already adopted, and EN 40000-1-3 is the closest of the remaining horizontal standards to final. Vulnerability handling is the area where you can, and should, start implementing today.

References

Help needed for your compliance journey?

If your organisation is preparing for the Cyber Resilience Act and wants to know which standards apply to its products, and how ready its processes are, feel free to get in touch. Vulnir helps manufacturers translate regulatory requirements into practical implementation and conformity assessment readiness.

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