Kirubavathi Ganapathiyappan^1,*, Kiruba Marimuthu Eswaramoorthy¹, Abi Thangamuthu Shanthamani¹, Aksaya Venugopal¹, Asita Pon Bhavya Iyyappan¹, Thilaga Manickam¹, Ateeq Ur Rehman^2,*, Habib Hamam^3,4,5,6

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-31, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.070067 - 09 December 2025

Abstract The growing use of Portable Document Format (PDF) files across various sectors such as education, government, and business has inadvertently turned them into a major target for cyberattacks. Cybercriminals take advantage of the inherent flexibility and layered structure of PDFs to inject malicious content, often employing advanced obfuscation techniques to evade detection by traditional signature-based security systems. These conventional methods are no longer adequate, especially against sophisticated threats like zero-day exploits and polymorphic malware. In response to these challenges, this study introduces a machine learning-based detection framework specifically designed to combat such threats. Central to… More >

Muhammad Binsawad^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.78, No.3, pp. 3645-3663, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.048183 - 26 March 2024

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… 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 - 21 August 2023

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 More >

P. Pandi Chandran^1,*, N. Hema Rajini², M. Jeyakarthic³

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.35, No.3, pp. 3349-3364, 2023, DOI:10.32604/iasc.2023.029946 - 17 August 2022

Abstract Cybercrime has increased considerably in recent times by creating new methods of stealing, changing, and destroying data in daily lives. Portable Document Format (PDF) has been traditionally utilized as a popular way of spreading malware. The recent advances of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models are utilized to detect and classify malware. With this motivation, this study focuses on the design of mayfly optimization with a deep belief network for PDF malware detection and classification (MFODBN-MDC) technique. The major intention of the MFODBN-MDC technique is for identifying and classifying the presence of malware… More >

Marwan Albahar^*, Mohammed Thanoon, Monaj Alzilai, Alaa Alrehily, Munirah Alfaar, Maimoona Algamdi, Norah Alassaf

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.2, pp. 2181-2202, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.018260 - 21 July 2021

Abstract Malicious Portable Document Format (PDF) files represent one of the largest threats in the computer security space. Significant research has been done using handwritten signatures and machine learning based on detection via manual feature extraction. These approaches are time consuming, require substantial prior knowledge, and the list of features must be updated with each newly discovered vulnerability individually. In this study, we propose two models for PDF malware detection. The first model is a convolutional neural network (CNN) integrated into a standard deviation based regularization model to detect malicious PDF documents. The second model is a More >