Assessing the Impact of Packing on Machine Learning-Based Malware Detection and Classification Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Gibert, Daniel, Totosis, Nikolaos, Patsakis, Constantinos, Zizzo, Giulio, Le, Quan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Gibert, Daniel
Totosis, Nikolaos
Patsakis, Constantinos
Zizzo, Giulio
Le, Quan
author_facet Gibert, Daniel
Totosis, Nikolaos
Patsakis, Constantinos
Zizzo, Giulio
Le, Quan
contents The proliferation of malware, particularly through the use of packing, presents a significant challenge to static analysis and signature-based malware detection techniques. The application of packing to the original executable code renders extracting meaningful features and signatures challenging. To deal with the increasing amount of malware in the wild, researchers and anti-malware companies started harnessing machine learning capabilities with very promising results. However, little is known about the effects of packing on static machine learning-based malware detection and classification systems. This work addresses this gap by investigating the impact of packing on the performance of static machine learning-based models used for malware detection and classification, with a particular focus on those using visualisation techniques. To this end, we present a comprehensive analysis of various packing techniques and their effects on the performance of machine learning-based detectors and classifiers. Our findings highlight the limitations of current static detection and classification systems and underscore the need to be proactive to effectively counteract the evolving tactics of malware authors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_24017
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing the Impact of Packing on Machine Learning-Based Malware Detection and Classification Systems
Gibert, Daniel
Totosis, Nikolaos
Patsakis, Constantinos
Zizzo, Giulio
Le, Quan
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
The proliferation of malware, particularly through the use of packing, presents a significant challenge to static analysis and signature-based malware detection techniques. The application of packing to the original executable code renders extracting meaningful features and signatures challenging. To deal with the increasing amount of malware in the wild, researchers and anti-malware companies started harnessing machine learning capabilities with very promising results. However, little is known about the effects of packing on static machine learning-based malware detection and classification systems. This work addresses this gap by investigating the impact of packing on the performance of static machine learning-based models used for malware detection and classification, with a particular focus on those using visualisation techniques. To this end, we present a comprehensive analysis of various packing techniques and their effects on the performance of machine learning-based detectors and classifiers. Our findings highlight the limitations of current static detection and classification systems and underscore the need to be proactive to effectively counteract the evolving tactics of malware authors.
title Assessing the Impact of Packing on Machine Learning-Based Malware Detection and Classification Systems
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.24017