VulnRepairEval: An Exploit-Based Evaluation Framework for Assessing Large Language Model Vulnerability Repair Capabilities

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Wang, Weizhe, Ma, Wei, Hu, Qiang, Zhang, Yao, Sun, Jianfei, Wu, Bin, Liu, Yang, Xu, Guangquan, Jiang, Lingxiao
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Wang, Weizhe
Ma, Wei
Hu, Qiang
Zhang, Yao
Sun, Jianfei
Wu, Bin
Liu, Yang
Xu, Guangquan
Jiang, Lingxiao
author_facet Wang, Weizhe
Ma, Wei
Hu, Qiang
Zhang, Yao
Sun, Jianfei
Wu, Bin
Liu, Yang
Xu, Guangquan
Jiang, Lingxiao
contents The adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) for automated software vulnerability patching has shown promising outcomes on carefully curated evaluation sets. Nevertheless, existing datasets predominantly rely on superficial validation methods rather than exploit-based verification, leading to overestimated performance in security-sensitive applications. This paper introduces VulnRepairEval, an evaluation framework anchored in functional Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploits. Our framework delivers a comprehensive, containerized evaluation pipeline that enables reproducible differential assessment, where repair success requires the original exploit to fail execution against the modified code. The benchmark construction involved extensive data curation: we processed over 400 CVEs and approximately 2,500 potential sources to extract a collection of authentic vulnerability instances (23 Python CVEs) amenable to automated testing with working PoCs. Through VulnRepairEval, we conduct a comprehensive evaluation of 12 popular LLMs and observe a significant performance deficit: even the top-performing model successfully addresses merely 5/23 instances (about 21.7%), exposing critical weaknesses in security-focused applications. Our failure analysis reveals that most unsuccessful attempts stem from imprecise vulnerability identification and patches containing syntactic or semantic errors. Enhanced prompting strategies and multi-agent approaches yield minimal improvements, with overall effectiveness remaining largely unaffected. This work contributes a stringent, practical evaluation framework for LLM-driven vulnerability remediation and underscores the necessity for assessment protocols that authentically reflect real-world exploitation scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_03331
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle VulnRepairEval: An Exploit-Based Evaluation Framework for Assessing Large Language Model Vulnerability Repair Capabilities
Wang, Weizhe
Ma, Wei
Hu, Qiang
Zhang, Yao
Sun, Jianfei
Wu, Bin
Liu, Yang
Xu, Guangquan
Jiang, Lingxiao
Software Engineering
Cryptography and Security
The adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) for automated software vulnerability patching has shown promising outcomes on carefully curated evaluation sets. Nevertheless, existing datasets predominantly rely on superficial validation methods rather than exploit-based verification, leading to overestimated performance in security-sensitive applications. This paper introduces VulnRepairEval, an evaluation framework anchored in functional Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploits. Our framework delivers a comprehensive, containerized evaluation pipeline that enables reproducible differential assessment, where repair success requires the original exploit to fail execution against the modified code. The benchmark construction involved extensive data curation: we processed over 400 CVEs and approximately 2,500 potential sources to extract a collection of authentic vulnerability instances (23 Python CVEs) amenable to automated testing with working PoCs. Through VulnRepairEval, we conduct a comprehensive evaluation of 12 popular LLMs and observe a significant performance deficit: even the top-performing model successfully addresses merely 5/23 instances (about 21.7%), exposing critical weaknesses in security-focused applications. Our failure analysis reveals that most unsuccessful attempts stem from imprecise vulnerability identification and patches containing syntactic or semantic errors. Enhanced prompting strategies and multi-agent approaches yield minimal improvements, with overall effectiveness remaining largely unaffected. This work contributes a stringent, practical evaluation framework for LLM-driven vulnerability remediation and underscores the necessity for assessment protocols that authentically reflect real-world exploitation scenarios.
title VulnRepairEval: An Exploit-Based Evaluation Framework for Assessing Large Language Model Vulnerability Repair Capabilities
topic Software Engineering
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03331