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 >

Ahmed Abdel-Wahab¹, Mohammad Alkhatib^2,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-34, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.070010 - 09 December 2025

Abstract Deepfake is a sort of fake media made by advanced AI methods like Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). Deepfake technology has many useful uses in education and entertainment, but it also raises a lot of ethical, social, and security issues, such as identity theft, the dissemination of false information, and privacy violations. This study seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of several methods for identifying and circumventing Deepfakes, with a particular focus on image-based Deepfakes. There are three main types of detection methods: classical, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL)-based, and hybrid methods. There are… More >

Dong Hyun Lee¹, Na Kyung Lee², Young Seo Lee^1,2,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-17, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069976 - 09 December 2025

Abstract There has been an increasing emphasis on performing deep neural network (DNN) inference locally on edge devices due to challenges such as network congestion and security concerns. However, as DRAM process technology continues to scale down, the bit-flip errors in the memory of edge devices become more frequent, thereby leading to substantial DNN inference accuracy loss. Though several techniques have been proposed to alleviate the accuracy loss in edge environments, they require complex computations and additional parity bits for error correction, thus resulting in significant performance and storage overheads. In this paper, we propose FeatherGuard,… More >

Kirubavathi Ganapathiyappan¹, Heba G. Mohamed², Abhishek Yadav¹, Guru Akshya Chinnaswamy¹, Ateeq Ur Rehman^3,*, Habib Hamam^4,5,6,7

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-18, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069951 - 09 December 2025

Abstract The escalating complexity of modern malware continues to undermine the effectiveness of traditional signature-based detection techniques, which are often unable to adapt to rapidly evolving attack patterns. To address these challenges, this study proposes X-MalNet, a lightweight Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) framework designed for static malware classification through image-based representations of binary executables. By converting malware binaries into grayscale images, the model extracts distinctive structural and texture-level features that signify malicious intent, thereby eliminating the dependence on manual feature engineering or dynamic behavioral analysis. Built upon a modified AlexNet architecture, X-MalNet employs transfer learning to… More >

Cyreneo Dofitas¹, Yong-Woon Kim², Yung-Cheol Byun^3,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-19, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069374 - 09 December 2025

Abstract Recent advances in deep learning have significantly improved flood detection and segmentation from aerial and satellite imagery. However, conventional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) often struggle in complex flood scenarios involving reflections, occlusions, or indistinct boundaries due to limited contextual modeling. To address these challenges, we propose a hybrid flood segmentation framework that integrates a Vision Transformer (ViT) encoder with a U-Net decoder, enhanced by a novel Flood-Aware Refinement Block (FARB). The FARB module improves boundary delineation and suppresses noise by combining residual smoothing with spatial-channel attention mechanisms. We evaluate our model on a UAV-acquired flood More >

Xin Ma^1,2, Jin Lei^3,4,*, Chenying Pei⁴, Chunming Wu⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-17, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069353 - 09 December 2025

Abstract This study proposes a lightweight apple detection method employing cascaded knowledge distillation (KD) to address the critical challenges of excessive parameters and high deployment costs in existing models. We introduce a Lightweight Feature Pyramid Network (LFPN) integrated with Lightweight Downsampling Convolutions (LDConv) to substantially reduce model complexity without compromising accuracy. A Lightweight Multi-channel Attention (LMCA) mechanism is incorporated between the backbone and neck networks to effectively suppress complex background interference in orchard environments. Furthermore, model size is compressed via Group_Slim channel pruning combined with a cascaded distillation strategy. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model More >

Fang Liu^*, Xianghui Meng, Jiachen Li, Sibo Guo

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-21, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069243 - 09 December 2025

Abstract With the popularization of smart devices, Location-Based Services (LBS) greatly facilitates users’ life, but at the same time brings the risk of users’ location privacy leakage. Existing location privacy protection methods are deficient, failing to reasonably allocate the privacy budget for non-outlier location points and ignoring the critical location information that may be contained in the outlier points, leading to decreased data availability and privacy exposure problems. To address these problems, this paper proposes a Mix Location Privacy Preservation Method Based on Differential Privacy with Clustering (MLDP). The method first utilizes the DBSCAN clustering algorithm… More >

Jiajun Sun, Shunshun Ji, Chao Zhang^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-23, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.068668 - 09 December 2025

Abstract Asparagus stem blight is a devastating crop disease, and the early detection of its pathogenic spores is essential for effective disease control and prevention. However, spore detection is still hindered by complex backgrounds, small target sizes, and high annotation costs, which limit its practical application and widespread adoption. To address these issues, a semi-supervised spore detection framework is proposed for use under complex background conditions. Firstly, a difficulty perception scoring function is designed to quantify the detection difficulty of each image region. For regions with higher difficulty scores, a masking strategy is applied, while the… More >

Fatima Khan¹, Amna Khan¹, Tariq Ali², Tariq Shahzad³, Tehseen Mazhar^4,*, Sunawar Khan⁵, Muhammad Adnan Khan^6,*, Habib Hamam^7,8,9,10

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-27, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.068228 - 09 December 2025

Abstract The rise in noise and air pollution poses severe risks to human health and the environment. Industrial and vehicular emissions release harmful pollutants such as CO₂, SO₂, CO, CH₄, and noise, leading to significant environmental degradation. Monitoring and analyzing pollutant concentrations in real-time is crucial for mitigating these risks. However, existing systems often lack the capacity to monitor both indoor and outdoor environments effectively.This study presents a low-cost, IoT-based pollution detection system that integrates gas sensors (MQ-135 and MQ-4), a noise sensor (LM393), and a humidity sensor (DHT-22), all connected to a Node MCU (ESP8266) microcontroller. The… More >

Bing Zhang, Wenqi Shi^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-19, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.067470 - 09 December 2025

Abstract To address the challenge of low survival rates and limited data collection efficiency in current virtual probe deployments, which results from anomaly detection mechanisms in location-based service (LBS) applications, this paper proposes a novel virtual probe deployment method based on user behavioral feature analysis. The core idea is to circumvent LBS anomaly detection by mimicking real-user behavior patterns. First, we design an automated data extraction algorithm that recognizes graphical user interface (GUI) elements to collect spatio-temporal behavior data. Then, by analyzing the automatically collected user data, we identify normal users’ spatio-temporal patterns and extract their… More >