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When LLMs Meet Cybersecurity: A Systematic Literature Review
### 🔍 Explore 612+ Papers Across 11 Research Categories **📊 RQ1: Domain LLMs** | **🎯 RQ2: Applications** | **🤖 RQ3: Future Directions**
## Updates 📆[2026-02-09] We have updated the related papers up to **2026/01/31**, with *80* new papers added (2025.08.31-2026.01.31). 📆[2025-11-17] We have updated the related papers up to **2025/08/31**, with *176* new papers added (2025.03.01-2025.08.31). 📆[2025-03-03] We have updated the related papers up to **2025/02/28**, with *33* new papers added (2025.01.01-2025.02.28). 📆[2025-01-21] We have updated the related papers up to **2024/12/31**, with *74* new papers added (2024.09.01-2024.12.31). 📆[2025-01-08] We have included **the publication venues** for each paper. 📆[2024-09-21] We have updated the related papers up to **2024/08/31**, with *75* new papers added (2024.06.01-2024.08.31). ## Brief Introduction #### 📊 Paper Distribution by Research Question | RQ | Category | Papers | Percentage | Trend | |:---:|----------|--------|:----------:|:-------:| | **RQ1** | 📊 [Evaluation Benchmarks](LITERATURES.md#cybersecurity-evaluation-benchmarks) | 42 | 6.8% | 📊 Stable | | | 🔧 [Fine-tuned LLMs](LITERATURES.md#fine-tuned-domain-llms-for-cybersecurity) | 32 | 5.2% | 📊 Stable | | **RQ2** | 🛡️ [LLM Assisted Defense](LITERATURES.md#llm-assisted-defense) | 113 | 18.5% | 📈 Growing | | | 🐛 [Vulnerability Detection](LITERATURES.md#vulnerability-detection) | 94 | 15.4% | 📈 Growing | | | ⚔️ [LLM Assisted Attack](LITERATURES.md#llm-assisted-attack) | 83 | 13.6% | 🔥 Hot | | | 🔨 [Program/Vulnerability Repair](LITERATURES.md#program-or-vulnerability-repair) | 66 | 10.8% | 📊 Stable | | | 📦 [Others](LITERATURES.md#others) | 56 | 9.2% | 📊 Stable | | | 🎯 [Threat Intelligence](LITERATURES.md#threat-intelligence) | 46 | 7.5% | 📊 Stable | | | 🔍 [FUZZ](LITERATURES.md#fuzz) | 25 | 4.1% | 📊 Stable | | | ⚠️ [Insecure Code Generation](LITERATURES.md#insecure-code-generation) | 31 | 5.1% | 🚫 Unmaintained | | **RQ3** | 🤖 [Agent4Cybersecurity](LITERATURES.md#further-research-agent4cybersecurity) | 56 | 9.2% | 🚀 Emerging | --- ## 📜 Literatures **👉 [View Full Literature Review →](LITERATURES.md)** The complete literature review with 612+ papers has been moved to a separate file for better readability. ### Quick Links by Research Question: - **[RQ1: Domain LLMs Construction](LITERATURES.md#-rq1-how-to-construct-cybersecurity-oriented-domain-llmss-74-papers)** - [Cybersecurity Evaluation Benchmarks](LITERATURES.md#cybersecurity-evaluation-benchmarks) (42 papers) - [Fine-tuned Domain LLMs](LITERATURES.md#fine-tuned-domain-llms-for-cybersecurity) (32 papers) - **[RQ2: LLM Applications in Cybersecurity](LITERATURES.md#-rq2-what-are-the-potential-applications-of-llms-in-cybersecurity-514-papers)** - [Threat Intelligence](LITERATURES.md#threat-intelligence) (46 papers) - [FUZZ](LITERATURES.md#fuzz) (25 papers) - [Vulnerability Detection](LITERATURES.md#vulnerability-detection) (94 papers) - [Program/Vulnerability Repair](LITERATURES.md#program-or-vulnerability-repair) (66 papers) - [Insecure Code Generation](LITERATURES.md#insecure-code-generation) (31 papers) - [LLM Assisted Defense](LITERATURES.md#llm-assisted-defense) (113 papers) - [LLM Assisted Attack](LITERATURES.md#llm-assisted-attack) (83 papers) - [Others](LITERATURES.md#others) (56 papers) - **[RQ3: Future Research Directions](LITERATURES.md#-rq3-what-are-further-research-directions-about-the-application-of-llms-in-cybersecurity-56-papers)** - [Agent4Cybersecurity](LITERATURES.md#further-research-agent4cybersecurity) (56 papers) ## BibTeX ``` @article{zhang2025llms, title={When llms meet cybersecurity: A systematic literature review}, author={Zhang, Jie and Bu, Haoyu and Wen, Hui and Liu, Yongji and Fei, Haiqiang and Xi, Rongrong and Li, Lun and Yang, Yun and Zhu, Hongsong and Meng, Dan}, journal={Cybersecurity}, volume={8}, number={1}, pages={1--41}, year={2025}, publisher={SpringerOpen} } ``` ## Star History [![Star History Chart](https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=tmylla/Awesome-LLM4Cybersecurity&type=date&legend=top-left)](https://www.star-history.com/#tmylla/Awesome-LLM4Cybersecurity&type=date&legend=top-left)