Automating the Detection of Code Vulnerabilities by Analyzing GitHub Issues

In today’s digital landscape, the importance of timely and accurate vulnerability detection has significantly increased. This paper presents a novel approach that leverages transformer-based models and machine learning techniques to automate the identification of software vulnerabilities by analyzing GitHub issues. We introduce a new dataset specifically designed for classifying GitHub issues relevant to vulnerability detection. We then examine various classification techniques to determine their effectiveness. The results demonstrate the potential of this approach for real-world application in early vulnerability detection, which could substantially reduce the window of exploitation for software vulnerabilities. This research makes a key contribution to the field by providing a scalable and computationally efficient framework for automated detection, enabling the prevention of compromised software usage before official notifications. This work has the potential to enhance the security of open-source software ecosystems.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-05-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/llm4code66737.2025.00010
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Software Engineering Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
12.98

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article

Automating the Detection of Code Vulnerabilities by Analyzing GitHub Issues

Simone Ferlin, Dejan Kostić, Marco Chiesa, Changjie Wang et al.
4 citations
Software Engineering Research
12.98
article

Automating the Detection of Code Vulnerabilities by Analyzing GitHub Issues

Simone Ferlin, Dejan Kostić, Marco Chiesa, Changjie Wang, Mariano Scazzariello, Daniele Cipollone
article en
4 citations

Abstract

In today’s digital landscape, the importance of timely and accurate vulnerability detection has significantly increased. This paper presents a novel approach that leverages transformer-based models and machine learning techniques to automate the identification of software vulnerabilities by analyzing GitHub issues. We introduce a new dataset specifically designed for classifying GitHub issues relevant to vulnerability detection. We then examine various classification techniques to determine their effectiveness. The results demonstrate the potential of this approach for real-world application in early vulnerability detection, which could substantially reduce the window of exploitation for software vulnerabilities. This research makes a key contribution to the field by providing a scalable and computationally efficient framework for automated detection, enabling the prevention of compromised software usage before official notifications. This work has the potential to enhance the security of open-source software ecosystems.

Red Hat (United States) (US), RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (SE), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE), Delft University of Technology (NL)
Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Software Engineering Research
12.98
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