[2604.00112] Efficient Software Vulnerability Detection Using Transformer-based Models

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security arXiv:2604.00112 (cs) [Submitted on 31 Mar 2026] Title:Efficient Software Vulnerability Detection Using Transformer-based Models Authors:Sameer Shaik, Zhen Huang, Daniela Stan Raicu, Jacob Furst View a PDF of the paper titled Efficient Software Vulnerability Detection Using Transformer-based Models, by Sameer Shaik and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Detecting software vulnerabilities is critical to ensuring the security and reliability of modern computer systems. Deep neural networks have shown promising results on vulnerability detection, but they lack the capability to capture global contextual information on vulnerable code. To address this limitation, we explore the application of transformers for C/C++ vulnerability detection. We use program slices that encapsulate key syntactic and semantic features of program code, such as API function calls, array usage, pointer manipulations, and arithmetic expressions. By leveraging transformers' capability to capture both local and global contextual information on vulnerable code, our work can identify vulnerabilities accurately. Combined with data balancing and hyperparameter fine-tuning, our work offers a robust and efficient approach to identifying vulnerable code with moderate resource usage and training time. Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Machine Learning (cs.LG); Software Engineering (cs.SE) Cite as: arXiv:2604.00112 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2604...