Ahsan Wajahat¹, Jingsha He¹, Nafei Zhu¹, Tariq Mahmood^2,3, Tanzila Saba², Amjad Rehman Khan², Faten S. Alamri^4,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.79, No.1, pp. 651-673, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.047530

Abstract The growing usage of Android smartphones has led to a significant rise in incidents of Android malware and privacy breaches. This escalating security concern necessitates the development of advanced technologies capable of automatically detecting and mitigating malicious activities in Android applications (apps). Such technologies are crucial for safeguarding user data and maintaining the integrity of mobile devices in an increasingly digital world. Current methods employed to detect sensitive data leaks in Android apps are hampered by two major limitations they require substantial computational resources and are prone to a high frequency of false positives. This means that while attempting to… More >

Muhammad Binsawad^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.78, No.3, pp. 3645-3663, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.048183

Abstract Malware is an ever-present and dynamic threat to networks and computer systems in cybersecurity, and because of its complexity and evasiveness, it is challenging to identify using traditional signature-based detection approaches. The study article discusses the growing danger to cybersecurity that malware hidden in PDF files poses, highlighting the shortcomings of conventional detection techniques and the difficulties presented by adversarial methodologies. The article presents a new method that improves PDF virus detection by using document analysis and a Logistic Model Tree. Using a dataset from the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity, a comparative analysis is carried out with well-known machine learning… More >

Rahul Gupta¹, Kapil Sharma^1,*, R. K. Garg²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.78, No.3, pp. 4283-4301, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.046890

Abstract The prevalence of smartphones is deeply embedded in modern society, impacting various aspects of our lives. Their versatility and functionalities have fundamentally changed how we communicate, work, seek entertainment, and access information. Among the many smartphones available, those operating on the Android platform dominate, being the most widely used type. This widespread adoption of the Android OS has significantly contributed to increased malware attacks targeting the Android ecosystem in recent years. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new methods for detecting Android malware. The literature contains numerous works related to Android malware detection. As far as our understanding… More >

Younghoon Ban, Myeonghyun Kim, Haehyun Cho^*

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.139, No.3, pp. 3535-3563, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2023.046658

Abstract Antivirus vendors and the research community employ Machine Learning (ML) or Deep Learning (DL)-based static analysis techniques for efficient identification of new threats, given the continual emergence of novel malware variants. On the other hand, numerous researchers have reported that Adversarial Examples (AEs), generated by manipulating previously detected malware, can successfully evade ML/DL-based classifiers. Commercial antivirus systems, in particular, have been identified as vulnerable to such AEs. This paper firstly focuses on conducting black-box attacks to circumvent ML/DL-based malware classifiers. Our attack method utilizes seven different perturbations, including Overlay Append, Section Append, and Break Checksum, capitalizing on the ambiguities present… More >

Asma A. Alhashmi¹, Abdulbasit A. Darem^1,*, Sultan M. Alanazi¹, Abdullah M. Alashjaee², Bader Aldughayfiq³, Fuad A. Ghaleb^4,5, Shouki A. Ebad¹, Majed A. Alanazi¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.76, No.3, pp. 3483-3498, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.041038

Abstract In an era marked by escalating cybersecurity threats, our study addresses the challenge of malware variant detection, a significant concern for a multitude of sectors including petroleum and mining organizations. This paper presents an innovative Application Programmable Interface (API)-based hybrid model designed to enhance the detection performance of malware variants. This model integrates eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifier, offering a potent response to the sophisticated evasion and obfuscation techniques frequently deployed by malware authors. The model’s design capitalizes on the benefits of both static and dynamic analysis to extract API-based features, providing a holistic… More >

Nida Aslam^1,*, Irfan Ullah Khan², Salma Abdulrahman Bader², Aisha Alansari³, Lama Abdullah Alaqeel², Razan Mohammed Khormy², Zahra Abdultawab AlKubaish², Tariq Hussain^4,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.76, No.3, pp. 3167-3188, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.039721

Abstract One of the most widely used smartphone operating systems, Android, is vulnerable to cutting-edge malware that employs sophisticated logic. Such malware attacks could lead to the execution of unauthorized acts on the victims’ devices, stealing personal information and causing hardware damage. In previous studies, machine learning (ML) has shown its efficacy in detecting malware events and classifying their types. However, attackers are continuously developing more sophisticated methods to bypass detection. Therefore, up-to-date datasets must be utilized to implement proactive models for detecting malware events in Android mobile devices. Therefore, this study employed ML algorithms to classify Android applications into malware… More >

Bilal Khan¹, Muhammad Arshad², Sarwar Shah Khan^3,4,*

Journal of Cyber Security, Vol.5, pp. 1-11, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jcs.2023.042501

Abstract The proliferation of maliciously coded documents as file transfers increase has led to a rise in sophisticated attacks. Portable Document Format (PDF) files have emerged as a major attack vector for malware due to their adaptability and wide usage. Detecting malware in PDF files is challenging due to its ability to include various harmful elements such as embedded scripts, exploits, and malicious URLs. This paper presents a comparative analysis of machine learning (ML) techniques, including Naive Bayes (NB), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Average One Dependency Estimator (A1DE), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for PDF malware detection. The study… More >

Khaled M. Alalayah¹, Fatma S. Alrayes², Mohamed K. Nour³, Khadija M. Alaidarous¹, Ibrahim M. Alwayle¹, Heba Mohsen⁴, Ibrahim Abdulrab Ahmed⁵, Mesfer Al Duhayyim^6,*

Computer Systems Science and Engineering, Vol.46, No.3, pp. 3103-3119, 2023, DOI:10.32604/csse.2023.034034

Abstract Malware is a ‘malicious software program that performs multiple cyberattacks on the Internet, involving fraud, scams, nation-state cyberwar, and cybercrime. Such malicious software programs come under different classifications, namely Trojans, viruses, spyware, worms, ransomware, Rootkit, botnet malware, etc. Ransomware is a kind of malware that holds the victim’s data hostage by encrypting the information on the user’s computer to make it inaccessible to users and only decrypting it; then, the user pays a ransom procedure of a sum of money. To prevent detection, various forms of ransomware utilize more than one mechanism in their attack flow in conjunction with Machine… More >

Faisal S. Alsubaei¹, Haya Mesfer Alshahrani², Khaled Tarmissi³, Abdelwahed Motwakel^4,*

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.36, No.3, pp. 2897-2914, 2023, DOI:10.32604/iasc.2023.034907

Abstract Cybersecurity has become the most significant research area in the domain of the Internet of Things (IoT) owing to the ever-increasing number of cyberattacks. The rapid penetration of Android platforms in mobile devices has made the detection of malware attacks a challenging process. Furthermore, Android malware is increasing on a daily basis. So, precise malware detection analytical techniques need a large number of hardware resources that are significantly resource-limited for mobile devices. In this research article, an optimal Graph Convolutional Neural Network-based Malware Detection and classification (OGCNN-MDC) model is introduced for an IoT-cloud environment. The proposed OGCNN-MDC model aims to… More >

Murat Dener^*, Sercan Gulburun

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.75, No.1, pp. 1235-1251, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.036357

Abstract One of the most common types of threats to the digital world is malicious software. It is of great importance to detect and prevent existing and new malware before it damages information assets. Machine learning approaches are used effectively for this purpose. In this study, we present a model in which supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms are used together. Clustering is used to enhance the prediction performance of the supervised classifiers. The aim of the proposed model is to make predictions in the shortest possible time with high accuracy and f1 score. In the first stage of the model, the… More >