fix: enhance grouping logic to preserve orphaned sub-techniques and prevent duplication (#229)

Co-authored-by: Scot Lunsford <slunsford@mitre.org>

Author: jondricek

AGENTS.md

@@ -10,8 +10,10 @@
 
 ## Build, Test, and Development Commands
 
+- Use `uv` to manage the project virtual environment, and keep it at the repo root as `.venv/`.
 - `just install`: install all dependencies (dev + docs) via `uv sync --all-extras`.
 - `just setup-hooks`: install `pre-commit` hooks (including commit message validation).
+- Before committing, run `just lint`.
 - `just lint`: run pre-commit hooks across the repo.
 - `just test`: run the pytest suite.
 - `just test-cov`: run tests with coverage for `mitreattack`.

mitreattack/diffStix/changelog_helper.py

@@ -896,10 +896,16 @@ def get_groupings(self, object_type: str, stix_objects: List, section: str, doma
 
         # now group parents and children
         groupings = []
+        # Track every child emitted into a grouping so the orphan-preservation fallback
+        # only adds truly ungrouped objects. This matters because the normal grouping
+        # path mutates parentToChildren via pop(), so a later scan of that mapping would
+        # miss children that were already attached to a valid parent and re-add them.
+        assigned_child_ids = set()
         for parent_stix_object in childless + parents:
             child_objects = (
                 parentToChildren.pop(parent_stix_object["id"]) if parent_stix_object["id"] in parentToChildren else []
             )
+            assigned_child_ids.update(child["id"] for child in child_objects)
             groupings.append(
                 {
                     "parent": parent_stix_object,
@@ -916,13 +922,41 @@ def get_groupings(self, object_type: str, stix_objects: List, section: str, doma
                 parent_stix_object = datasources[parent_stix_id]
 
             if parent_stix_object:
+                # Keep the children together under the missing-section parent context,
+                # but still mark them as assigned so they are not emitted again below.
+                assigned_child_ids.update(child["id"] for child in child_objects)
                 groupings.append(
                     {
                         "parent": None,
                         "children": child_objects,
                         "sort_name": parent_stix_object["name"],
                     }
                 )
+            else:
+                for child in child_objects:
+                    # The relationship points to a parent we cannot resolve from the
+                    # loaded bundle, so preserve each child as its own standalone entry.
+                    assigned_child_ids.add(child["id"])
+                    groupings.append(
+                        {
+                            "parent": None,
+                            "children": [child],
+                            "sort_name": child["name"],
+                        }
+                    )
+
+        # Preserve children that never appeared in any grouping at all. This covers
+        # malformed or partial bundles where an object is marked as a sub-technique
+        # (or data component child) but no usable relationship was loaded.
+        for child in children.values():
+            if child["id"] not in assigned_child_ids:
+                groupings.append(
+                    {
+                        "parent": None,
+                        "children": [child],
+                        "sort_name": child["name"],
+                    }
+                )
 
         groupings = sorted(groupings, key=lambda grouping: grouping["sort_name"])
         return groupings

tests/changelog/core/test_diffstix_methods.py

@@ -62,6 +62,55 @@ def test_get_groupings_omits_parent_when_not_in_section(
         assert result[0]["parent"] is None
         assert result[0]["children"] == [sample_subtechnique_object]
 
+    def test_get_groupings_keeps_orphan_subtechnique_when_relationship_missing(
+        self,
+        lightweight_diffstix,
+        sample_subtechnique_object,
+    ):
+        """Test orphaned sub-techniques remain visible when no relationship exists."""
+        lightweight_diffstix.data["new"]["enterprise-attack"]["attack_objects"]["techniques"] = {
+            sample_subtechnique_object["id"]: sample_subtechnique_object,
+        }
+        lightweight_diffstix.data["new"]["enterprise-attack"]["relationships"]["subtechniques"] = {}
+
+        result = lightweight_diffstix.get_groupings(
+            object_type="techniques",
+            stix_objects=[sample_subtechnique_object],
+            section="revocations",
+            domain="enterprise-attack",
+        )
+
+        assert len(result) == 1
+        assert result[0]["parent"] is None
+        assert result[0]["children"] == [sample_subtechnique_object]
+
+    def test_get_groupings_does_not_duplicate_child_with_parent_relationship(
+        self,
+        lightweight_diffstix,
+        sample_technique_object,
+        sample_subtechnique_object,
+        sample_subtechnique_of_technique_relationship,
+    ):
+        """Test children grouped under a real parent are not re-added by fallback handling."""
+        lightweight_diffstix.data["new"]["enterprise-attack"]["attack_objects"]["techniques"] = {
+            sample_technique_object["id"]: sample_technique_object,
+            sample_subtechnique_object["id"]: sample_subtechnique_object,
+        }
+        lightweight_diffstix.data["new"]["enterprise-attack"]["relationships"]["subtechniques"] = {
+            sample_subtechnique_of_technique_relationship["id"]: sample_subtechnique_of_technique_relationship,
+        }
+
+        result = lightweight_diffstix.get_groupings(
+            object_type="techniques",
+            stix_objects=[sample_technique_object, sample_subtechnique_object],
+            section="additions",
+            domain="enterprise-attack",
+        )
+
+        assert len(result) == 1
+        assert result[0]["parent"] == sample_technique_object
+        assert result[0]["children"] == [sample_subtechnique_object]
+
     def test_update_contributors_real_functionality(self, lightweight_diffstix, mock_stix_object_factory):
         """Test real contributor tracking."""
         # Create objects with contributors