1. A method in a computing system, comprising: receiving in the computing system a distinguished patch package for modifying the behavior of a distinguished program; automatically extracting from the distinguished patch package (1) patch application information, identifying a distinguished portion of the distinguished program against which a patch is to be applied, and (2) patch behavior information, specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the identified distinguished portion of the distinguished program, wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the identified distinguished portion of the distinguished program to perform value validation by invoking a helper function that performs value validation on a data value accessed by the distinguished program; prior to application of the patch against the distinguished program, automatically adding a distinguished entry to a patch table, the distinguished entry containing the extracted patch application information and patch behavior information, wherein the patch table is configured to include a plurality of entries containing information extracted from a plurality of patch packages; and when the identified distinguished portion of the distinguished program is executed, invoking the helper function to perform value validation on the data value accessed by the distinguished program.