# SecRepoBench: Benchmarking Code Agents for Secure Code Completion in Real-World Repositories

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.21205 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21205/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 22 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Apr 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agent threats, guardrails and governance](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agent-threats-guardrails-and-governance/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Program Synthesis with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07732/) (2021)
- [LiveCodeBench: Holistic and Contamination Free Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07974/) (2024)
- [Competition-Level Code Generation with AlphaCode](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.07814/) (2022)
- [Is Your Code Generated by ChatGPT Really Correct? Rigorous Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01210/) (2023)
- [OpenHands: An Open Platform for AI Software Developers as Generalist Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16741/) (2024)
- [Measuring Coding Challenge Competence With APPS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09938/) (2021)
- [Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Code Contributions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.09293/) (2021)
- [RepoBench: Benchmarking Repository-Level Code Auto-Completion Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03091/) (2023)
- [CRUXEval: A Benchmark for Code Reasoning, Understanding and Execution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03065/) (2024)
- [CrossCodeEval: A Diverse and Multilingual Benchmark for Cross-File Code Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11248/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models for Code: Security Hardening and Adversarial Testing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05319/) (2023)
- [Purple Llama CyberSecEval: A Secure Coding Benchmark for Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04724/) (2023)
- [DiverseVul: A New Vulnerable Source Code Dataset for Deep Learning Based Vulnerability Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.00409/) (2023)
- [Can ChatGPT replace StackOverflow? A Study on Robustness and Reliability of Large Language Model Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10335/) (2023)
- [CWEval: Outcome-driven Evaluation on Functionality and Security of LLM Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.08200/) (2025)
- [CodeLMSec Benchmark: Systematically Evaluating and Finding Security Vulnerabilities in Black-Box Code Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04012/) (2023)
- [Long Code Arena: a Set of Benchmarks for Long-Context Code Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11612/) (2024)
- [Top Leaderboard Ranking = Top Coding Proficiency, Always? EvoEval: Evolving Coding Benchmarks via LLM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19114/) (2024)
- [PromSec: Prompt Optimization for Secure Generation of Functional Source Code with Large Language Models (LLMs)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12699/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Large Language Models for Secure Code Generation: A Dataset-driven Study on Vulnerability Mitigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.16263/) (2023)
- [Enhancing Security of AI-Based Code Synthesis with GitHub Copilot via Cheap and Efficient Prompt-Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12671/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.02547/) (2025)
- [ExploitGym: Can AI Agents Turn Security Vulnerabilities into Real Attacks?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11086/) (2026)
- [Cyber-Zero: Training Cybersecurity Agents without Runtime](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00910/) (2025)
- [From Code Foundation Models to Agents and Applications: A Comprehensive Survey and Practical Guide to Code Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18538/) (2025)
- [OctoBench: Benchmarking Scaffold-Aware Instruction Following in Repository-Grounded Agentic Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.10343/) (2026)
- [CyberGym-E2E: Scalable Real-World Benchmark for AI Agents' End-to-End Cybersecurity Capabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.04460/) (2026)
- [DualGauge: Automated Joint Security-Functionality Benchmarking of Specification-Only Code Generation by LLMs and Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.20709/) (2025)
- [Refusal Evaluation in Coding LLMs and Code Agents: A Systematic Review of Thirteen Malicious-Code Prompt Corpora (2023-2025)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.20351/) (2026)
- [SEVRA-BENCH: Social Engineering of Vulnerabilities in Review Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.13757/) (2026)
- [SoK: AI Secure Code Generation: Progress, Pitfalls, and Paths Forward](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.25195/) (2026)
- [The Patchwork Problem in LLM-Generated Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.08981/) (2026)
- [EduPluginBench: Executable Assurance for AI-Generated Educational Plugins](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.00739/) (2026)
- [Large Language Models at the Intersection of Software Engineering and Software Security:An Evidence-Centered Structured Survey and Research Agenda](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21107/) (2026)
- [SkillShield: Prompt-Space Security Skills for LLM Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.25817/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper introduces SecRepoBench, a benchmark to evaluate code agents on secure code completion in real-world repositories. SecRepoBench has 318 code completion tasks in 27 C/C++ repositories, covering 15 CWEs. We evaluate 29 standalone LLMs and 15 code agents across 3 state-of-the-art agent frameworks using our benchmark. We find that state-of-the-art LLMs struggle with generating correct and secure code completions. However, code agents significantly outperform standalone LLMs. We show that SecRepoBench is more difficult than the prior state-of-the-art benchmark. Finally, our comprehensive analysis provides insights into potential directions for enhancing the ability of code agents to write correct and secure code in real-world repositories.