Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ajayi, Bamidele, Barakat, Basel, McGarry, Ken
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20803
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913812762853376
author Ajayi, Bamidele
Barakat, Basel
McGarry, Ken
author_facet Ajayi, Bamidele
Barakat, Basel
McGarry, Ken
contents This paper assesses the performance of five machine learning classifiers: Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, LightGBM, Logistic Regression, and Random Forest using latent representations learned by a Variational Autoencoder from malware datasets. Results from the experiments conducted on different training-test splits with different random seeds reveal that all the models perform well in detecting malware with ensemble methods (LightGBM and Random Forest) performing slightly better than the rest. In addition, the use of latent features reduces the computational cost of the model and the need for extensive hyperparameter tuning for improved efficiency of the model for deployment. Statistical tests show that these improvements are significant, and thus, the practical relevance of integrating latent space representation with traditional classifiers for effective malware detection in cybersecurity is established.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_20803
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Leveraging VAE-Derived Latent Spaces for Enhanced Malware Detection with Machine Learning Classifiers
Ajayi, Bamidele
Barakat, Basel
McGarry, Ken
Cryptography and Security
Machine Learning
This paper assesses the performance of five machine learning classifiers: Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, LightGBM, Logistic Regression, and Random Forest using latent representations learned by a Variational Autoencoder from malware datasets. Results from the experiments conducted on different training-test splits with different random seeds reveal that all the models perform well in detecting malware with ensemble methods (LightGBM and Random Forest) performing slightly better than the rest. In addition, the use of latent features reduces the computational cost of the model and the need for extensive hyperparameter tuning for improved efficiency of the model for deployment. Statistical tests show that these improvements are significant, and thus, the practical relevance of integrating latent space representation with traditional classifiers for effective malware detection in cybersecurity is established.
title Leveraging VAE-Derived Latent Spaces for Enhanced Malware Detection with Machine Learning Classifiers
topic Cryptography and Security
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20803