When Software Security Meets Large Language Models: A Survey

Software security poses substantial risks to our society because software has become part of our life. Numerous techniques have been proposed to resolve or mitigate the impact of software security issues. Among them, software testing and analysis are two of the critical methods, which significantly benefit from the advancements in deep learning technologies. Due to the successful use of deep learning in software security, recently, researchers have explored the potential of using large language models (LLMs) in this area. In this paper, we systematically review the results focusing on LLMs in software security. We analyze the topics of fuzzing, unit test, program repair, bug reproduction, data-driven bug detection, and bug triage. We deconstruct these techniques into several stages and analyze how LLMs can be used in the stages. We also discuss the future directions of using LLMs in software security, including the future directions for the existing use of LLMs and extensions from conventional deep learning research.