Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices

This paper proposes a novel malware visual analysis method that contains not only a visualization method to convert binary files into images, but also a similarity calculation method between these images. The proposed method generates RGB-colored pixels on image matrices using the opcode sequences e...

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Main Authors: KyoungSoo Han, BooJoong Kang, Eul Gyu Im
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2014-01-01
Series:The Scientific World Journal
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/132713
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author KyoungSoo Han
BooJoong Kang
Eul Gyu Im
author_facet KyoungSoo Han
BooJoong Kang
Eul Gyu Im
author_sort KyoungSoo Han
collection DOAJ
description This paper proposes a novel malware visual analysis method that contains not only a visualization method to convert binary files into images, but also a similarity calculation method between these images. The proposed method generates RGB-colored pixels on image matrices using the opcode sequences extracted from malware samples and calculates the similarities for the image matrices. Particularly, our proposed methods are available for packed malware samples by applying them to the execution traces extracted through dynamic analysis. When the images are generated, we can reduce the overheads by extracting the opcode sequences only from the blocks that include the instructions related to staple behaviors such as functions and application programming interface (API) calls. In addition, we propose a technique that generates a representative image for each malware family in order to reduce the number of comparisons for the classification of unknown samples and the colored pixel information in the image matrices is used to calculate the similarities between the images. Our experimental results show that the image matrices of malware can effectively be used to classify malware families both statically and dynamically with accuracy of 0.9896 and 0.9732, respectively.
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issn 2356-6140
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language English
publishDate 2014-01-01
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record_format Article
series The Scientific World Journal
spelling doaj-art-0d278388d1d6415085dc10ee00f8d3ce2025-02-03T06:07:34ZengWileyThe Scientific World Journal2356-61401537-744X2014-01-01201410.1155/2014/132713132713Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image MatricesKyoungSoo Han0BooJoong Kang1Eul Gyu Im2Department of Computer and Software, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of KoreaDivision of Computer Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of KoreaThis paper proposes a novel malware visual analysis method that contains not only a visualization method to convert binary files into images, but also a similarity calculation method between these images. The proposed method generates RGB-colored pixels on image matrices using the opcode sequences extracted from malware samples and calculates the similarities for the image matrices. Particularly, our proposed methods are available for packed malware samples by applying them to the execution traces extracted through dynamic analysis. When the images are generated, we can reduce the overheads by extracting the opcode sequences only from the blocks that include the instructions related to staple behaviors such as functions and application programming interface (API) calls. In addition, we propose a technique that generates a representative image for each malware family in order to reduce the number of comparisons for the classification of unknown samples and the colored pixel information in the image matrices is used to calculate the similarities between the images. Our experimental results show that the image matrices of malware can effectively be used to classify malware families both statically and dynamically with accuracy of 0.9896 and 0.9732, respectively.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/132713
spellingShingle KyoungSoo Han
BooJoong Kang
Eul Gyu Im
Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices
The Scientific World Journal
title Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices
title_full Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices
title_fullStr Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices
title_full_unstemmed Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices
title_short Malware Analysis Using Visualized Image Matrices
title_sort malware analysis using visualized image matrices
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/132713
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AT eulgyuim malwareanalysisusingvisualizedimagematrices