path_templates is not longer required by the MatcherParser

src/detectmatelibrary/parsers/template_matcher/_parser.py

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class MatcherParserConfig(CoreParserConfig):
     remove_punctuation: bool = True
     lowercase: bool = True
 
-    path_templates: str = "<PLACEHOLDER>"
+    path_templates: str | None = None
 
 
 class MatcherParser(CoreParser):
@@ -67,8 +67,11 @@ def __init__(
         super().__init__(name=name, config=config)
         self.config: MatcherParserConfig
 
+        templates = load_templates(
+            self.config.path_templates
+        ) if self.config.path_templates is not None else []
         self.template_matcher = TemplateMatcher(
-            template_list=load_templates(self.config.path_templates),
+            template_list=templates,
             remove_spaces=self.config.remove_spaces,
             remove_punctuation=self.config.remove_punctuation,
             lowercase=self.config.lowercase,

tests/test_parsers/test_template_matcher.py

@@ -13,6 +13,24 @@
 
 
 class TestMatcherParserBasic:
+    def test_no_path_templates(self):
+        config_dict = {
+            "parsers": {
+                "MatcherParser": {
+                    "auto_config": True,
+                    "method_type": "matcher_parser",
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        parser = MatcherParser(name="MatcherParser", config=config_dict)
+        input_log = schemas.LogSchema({"log": test_log_match})
+        output_data = schemas.ParserSchema()
+        parser.parse(input_log, output_data)
+
+        assert output_data.template == "<Not Found>"
+        assert output_data.EventID == -1
+        assert output_data.variables == []
+
     def test_templates_not_found(self):
         config_dict = {
             "parsers": {