mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

VulnResolver: A Hybrid Agent Framework for LLM-Based Automated Vulnerability Issue Resolution

arXiv 2601.13933 ↗First posted 20 Jan 2026cs.SEcited by 2

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent threats, guardrails and governance

Abstract (arXiv)

As software systems grow in complexity, security vulnerabilities have become increasingly prevalent, posing serious risks and economic costs. Although automated detection tools such as fuzzers have advanced considerably, effective resolution still often depends on human expertise. Existing automated vulnerability repair (AVR) methods rely heavily on manually provided annotations (e.g., fault locations or CWE labels), which are often difficult and time-consuming to obtain, while overlooking the rich, naturally embedded semantic context found in issue reports from developers. In this paper, we present VulnResolver, the first LLM-based hybrid agent framework for automated vulnerability issue resolution. VulnResolver unites the adaptability of autonomous agents with the stability of workflow-guided repair through two specialized agents. The Context Pre-Collection Agent (CPCAgent) adaptively explores the repository to gather dependency and contextual information, while the Safety Property Analysis Agent (SPAAgent) generates and validates the safety properties violated by vulnerabilities. Together, these agents produce structured analyses that enrich the original issue reports, enabling more accurate vulnerability localization and patch generation. Evaluations on the SEC-bench benchmark show that VulnResolver resolves 75% of issues on SEC-bench Lite, achieving the best resolution performance. On SEC-bench Full, VulnResolver also significantly outperforms the strongest baseline, the agent-based OpenHands, confirming its effectiveness. Overall, VulnResolver delivers an adaptive and security-aware framework that advances end-to-end automated vulnerability issue resolution through workflow stability and the specialized agents' capabilities in contextual reasoning and property-based analysis.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 27 of its 63 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 Jan 2026.

Builds on

27 of 63 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025SEC-bench: Automated Benchmarking of LLM Agents on Real-World Software Security Tasks13 Jun

Other references · 26

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  2. 2023SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?cited by 3,193
  3. 2024SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineeringcited by 1,628
  4. 2024OpenHands: An Open Platform for AI Software Developers as Generalist Agentscited by 956
  5. 2024Executable Code Actions Elicit Better LLM Agentscited by 537
  6. 2024AutoCodeRover: Autonomous Program Improvementcited by 272
  7. 2024RepairAgent: An Autonomous, LLM-Based Agent for Program Repaircited by 225
  8. 2024SWE-bench Multimodal: Do AI Systems Generalize to Visual Software Domains?cited by 196
  9. 2024MAGIS: LLM-Based Multi-Agent Framework for GitHub Issue Resolutioncited by 132
  10. 2023Keep the Conversation Going: Fixing 162 out of 337 bugs for 0.42 each using ChatGPTcited by 125
  11. 2024SWE-Search: Enhancing Software Agents with Monte Carlo Tree Search and Iterative Refinementcited by 124
  12. 2025Trae Agent: An LLM-based Agent for Software Engineering with Test-time Scalingcited by 93
14 more
  1. 2024SpecRover: Code Intent Extraction via LLMscited by 71
  2. 2024MarsCode Agent: AI-native Automated Bug Fixingcited by 68
  3. 2019TBar: Revisiting Template-based Automated Program Repaircited by 64
  4. 2018The Art, Science, and Engineering of Fuzzing: A Surveycited by 61
  5. 2021Neural Transfer Learning for Repairing Security Vulnerabilities in C Codecited by 36
  6. 2024PropertyGPT: LLM-driven Formal Verification of Smart Contracts through Retrieval-Augmented Property Generationcited by 36
  7. 2024An Empirical Study on LLM-based Agents for Automated Bug Fixingcited by 23
  8. 2024ThinkRepair: Self-Directed Automated Program Repaircited by 22
  9. 2024APPATCH: Automated Adaptive Prompting Large Language Models for Real-World Software Vulnerability Patchingcited by 18
  10. 2025Prometheus: Towards Long-Horizon Codebase Navigation for Repository-Level Problem Solvingcited by 12
  11. 2025Seeing is Fixing: Cross-Modal Reasoning with Multimodal LLMs for Visual Software Issue Fixingcited by 11
  12. 2025SoK: Towards Effective Automated Vulnerability Repaircited by 9
  13. 2025Can Agents Fix Agent Issues?cited by 8
  14. 2025Repair Ingredients Are All You Need: Improving Large Language Model-Based Program Repair via Repair Ingredients Searchcited by 8

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Multi-Agent End-to-End Vulnerability Management for Mitigating Recurring Vulnerabilities
  2. 2026FuzzingBrain V2: A Multi-Agent LLM System for Automated Vulnerability Discovery and Reproduction
  3. 2026AgenticVM: Agentic AI for Adaptive Software Vulnerability Management
  4. 2026A Multi-Agent Framework for Automated Exploit Generation with Constraint-Guided Comprehension and Reflection
  5. 2026RAVEN: Agentic RAG for Automated Vulnerability Repair
  6. 2026AgenticRepair: Multi-Faceted Program Context Engineering for Agentic Vulnerability Repair
  7. 2025Let the Trial Begin: A Mock-Court Approach to Vulnerability Detection using LLM-Based Agents
  8. 2025LLM Agents for Automated Web Vulnerability Reproduction: Are We There Yet?