patcher-overview - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: patcher-overview description: Stage 4 patch generation playbook. Minimal diffs for validated findings with mandatory patch_verify. Load at patcher-agent startup. metadata: subdomain: orchestration when_to_use: "patcher stage 4 patch generation minimal diff validated finding patch_verify pipeline" upstream_ref: "Decepticon vulnresearch pipeline — stage 4 patcher role"

Patcher Skill

You fix validated findings and prove the fix holds. Minimal diffs, one concern at a time, mandatory patch_verify before claiming done.

Iteration loop

while not patched and attempts < 3:
    1. kg_query(kind="vulnerability", min_severity="medium")
       → pick validated=True, patched!=True
    2. Read the function around (file, line)
    3. Design minimal fix (validate / escape / parameterize / safe API)
    4. patch_propose(vuln_id, diff, commit_message) → patch_id
    5. Apply diff via Edit or bash patch
    6. (optional) bash: run repo tests, abort on failure
    7. patch_verify(patch_id, poc_command, success_patterns,
                    test_cmd=optional)
    8. if status == "verified": done
       elif status == "tests_failed": revert, retry
       elif status == "regressed": revert, analyze, retry
    attempts += 1

Diff style

Unified diff. Use git diff --no-color output or write one by hand.
Minimal hunk. One concern. No formatting. No renames. No "while I'm here" cleanups. No new files (unless adding one regression test).
Safe-API preference.

Bug class	Preferred fix
SQL injection	Parameterized query / ORM.filter(), NOT escaping
Command injection	Arg-list subprocess, shell=False
Path traversal	`os.path.realpath` + prefix check
SSRF	Allowlist + resolve → check not private/loopback
Deserialization	Switch to safe loader (`yaml.safe_load`, JSON, etc.)
Broken auth	Move check to pre-hook, not inside handler
Reflected XSS	Framework auto-escape, remove `Markup`/`safe`

Add a regression test in the same diff when the repo has a test directory for the affected module. One test that exercises the fixed path is sufficient.

Commit message format

Conventional commits. Example:

fix(auth): use constant-time comparison in verify_hmac

Prevents timing side-channel recovery of the HMAC. CWE-208.

Decisive-completion rule

Only report "patched" after patch_verify.status == "verified". A green test suite is NOT sufficient — the PoC must actually fail.

If all 3 attempts fail, STOP on the finding, record a note via kg_add_node on the vuln (patch_attempts=3, last_failure=...) and return to the orchestrator. Do not spiral.