---
license: apache-2.0
task_categories:
- feature-extraction
- text-classification
- summarization
- text-generation
tags:
- code
- commit
- patch
language:
- en
pretty_name: PatchDB
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
---

# PatchDB: A Large-Scale Security Patch Dataset

## Description

To foster large-scale research on vulnerability mitigation and to enable a comparison of different detection approaches, we make our dataset ***PatchDB*** from our DSN'21 paper publicly available. 

PatchDB is a large-scale security patch dataset that contains around 12,073 security patches and 23,742 non-security patches from the real world. 
You can find more details on the dataset in the paper *"[PatchDB: A Large-Scale Security Patch Dataset](https://csis.gmu.edu/ksun/publications/dsn21_PatchDB.pdf)"*. You can also visit our [PatchDB official website](https://sunlab-gmu.github.io/PatchDB) for more information.

<font color="red">Please use your work emails to request for the dataset.</font> Typically, it takes no longer than 24 hours to get approval.

## Data Structure

PatchDB is stored in `json` format, where each sample contains 9 keys and has the following format.

```json
{
  "category": the type of patch, value:"security" or "non-security",
  "source": the source of patch, value: "cve" or "wild",
  "CVE_ID": the CVE ID if it exists, value: "CVE-XXXX-XXXXX" or "NA",
  "CWE_ID": the CWE ID if it exists, value: "cwe_id" or "NA"
  "commit_id": the hash value of the commit, type: str,
  "owner": the owner id of the repository, type: str,
  "repo": the repository id, type: str,
  "commit_message": the commit message part of the patch, type: str,
  "diff_code": the diff code part of the patch, type: str
}
```


## Disclaimer & Download Agreement<span id="jump"></span>

To download the PatchDB dataset, you must agree with the items of the succeeding Disclaimer & Download Agreement. You should carefully read the following terms before submitting the PatchDB request form.

- PatchDB is constructed and cross-checked by 3 experts that work in security patch research.
  Due to the potential misclassification led by subjective factors, the Sun Security Laboratory (SunLab) cannot guarantee a 100% accuracy for samples in the dataset.

- The copyright of the PatchDB dataset is owned by SunLab.

- The purpose of using PatchDB should be non-commercial research and/or personal use. The dataset should not be used for commercial use and any profitable purpose.

- **Access to this dataset requires applying with a verified work or educational email address.**

- The PatchDB dataset should not be re-selled or re-distributed. Anyone who has obtained PatchDB should not share the dataset with others without the permission from SunLab.

## Team

The PatchDB dataset is built by [Sun Security Laboratory](https://sunlab-gmu.github.io/) (SunLab) at [George Mason University](https://www2.gmu.edu/), Fairfax, VA. 
![SunLab Logo](https://sunlab-gmu.github.io/PatchDB/img/sunlab_logo_full.png "SunLab Logo")

## Citations


```bibtex
@inproceedings{wang2021PatchDB, 
  author={Wang, Xinda and Wang, Shu and Feng, Pengbin and Sun, Kun and Jajodia, Sushil},
  booktitle={2021 51st Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN)}, 
  title={PatchDB: A Large-Scale Security Patch Dataset}, 
  year={2021},
  volume={},
  number={},
  pages={149-160},
  doi={10.1109/DSN48987.2021.00030}
}
```