research-article

Understanding and Tackling Label Errors in Deep Learning-Based Vulnerability Detection (Experience Paper)

Authors:

Shangguang Wang,

Haoyu WangAuthors Info & Claims

ISSTA 2023: Proceedings of the 32nd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis

Pages 52 - 63

https://doi.org/10.1145/3597926.3598037

Published: 13 July 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Software system complexity and security vulnerability diversity are plausible sources of the persistent challenges in software vulnerability research. Applying deep learning methods for automatic vulnerability detection has been proven an effective means to complement traditional detection approaches. Unfortunately, lacking well-qualified benchmark datasets could critically restrict the effectiveness of deep learning-based vulnerability detection techniques. Specifically, the long-term existence of erroneous labels in the existing vulnerability datasets may lead to inaccurate, biased, and even flawed results.

In this paper, we aim to obtain an in-depth understanding and explanation of the label error causes. To this end, we systematically analyze the diversified datasets used by state-of-the-art learning-based vulnerability detection approaches, and examine their techniques for collecting vulnerable source code datasets. We find that label errors heavily impact the mainstream vulnerability detection models, with a worst-case average F1 drop of 20.7%. As mitigation, we introduce two approaches to dataset denoising, which will enhance the model performance by an average of 10.4%. Leveraging dataset denoising methods, we provide a feasible solution to obtain high-quality labeled datasets.

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Bennouk KAit Aali NEl Bouzekri El Idrissi YSebai BFaroukhi AMahouachi D(2024)A Comprehensive Review and Assessment of Cybersecurity Vulnerability Detection MethodologiesJournal of Cybersecurity and Privacy10.3390/jcp40400404:4(853-908)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
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Understanding and Tackling Label Errors in Deep Learning-Based Vulnerability Detection (Experience Paper)

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cover image ACM Conferences

ISSTA 2023: Proceedings of the 32nd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis

July 2023

1554 pages

ISBN:9798400702211

DOI:10.1145/3597926

General Chair:
René Just
University of Washington, USA
,
Program Chair:
Gordon Fraser
University of Passau, Germany

Copyright © 2023 ACM.

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Published: 13 July 2023

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July 17 - 21, 2023

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.3390/jcp4040040
Gürfidan R(2024)VULREM: Fine-Tuned BERT-Based Source-Code Potential Vulnerability Scanning System to Mitigate Attacks in Web ApplicationsApplied Sciences10.3390/app1421969714:21(9697)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/app14219697
Cheng BZhao SWang KWang MBai GFeng RGuo YMa LWang H(2024)Beyond Fidelity: Explaining Vulnerability Localization of Learning-Based DetectorsACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364154333:5(1-33)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641543
Liu YTantithamthavorn CLiu YLi L(2024)On the Reliability and Explainability of Language Models for Program GenerationACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364154033:5(1-26)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
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Wang WLi YLi AZhang JMa WLiu YRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)An Empirical Study on Noisy Label Learning for Program UnderstandingProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3639217(1-12)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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Xing YHuang JWang GYou YYang BLi XLuo Y(2024)Data Augmentation for Vulnerability Detection Based on Code Refactoring and Mixup2024 IEEE 35th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW)10.1109/ISSREW63542.2024.00070(161-168)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2024
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Cheng JChen YCao YWang H(2024)A vulnerability detection framework by focusing on critical execution pathsInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107517174(107517)Online publication date: Oct-2024
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Guo YBettaieb SCasino F(2024)A comprehensive analysis on software vulnerability detection datasets: trends, challenges, and road aheadInternational Journal of Information Security10.1007/s10207-024-00888-y23:5(3311-3327)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
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Li NWang SFeng MWang KWang MWang H(2023)MalWuKong: Towards Fast, Accurate, and Multilingual Detection of Malicious Code Poisoning in OSS Supply Chains2023 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE)10.1109/ASE56229.2023.00073(1993-2005)Online publication date: 11-Sep-2023
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