Evolutionary Deep-Learning Malware Classifiers

Didi, S. and Nitschke, G. (2025) Evolutionary Deep-Learning Malware Classifiers, Proceedings of IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (IEEE SSCI 2025), Trondheim, Norway, IEEE Press.

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Abstract

Malware attacks remain a critical cyber-security concern, necessitating robust solutions for both individual users and organizations. Deep learning methods have become pervasive tools for malware detection and classification. However, the evolution of malware into sophisticated forms that aim to elude detection poses a formidable challenge to traditional deep learning methods. Existing techniques for generating adversarial samples often rely on manual feature extraction and white-box models, introducing a gap between the generated samples and real-world scenarios. In response to these challenges, we propose an innovative approach leveraging evolutionary learning for the generation of adversarial samples. Our approach uses a three step process for malware detection. First, a trained deep-learning malware classifier categorizes samples as benign or malicious. Second, an evolutionary adversarial learning approach trains and generates new malware samples. Third, competitive coevolution facilitates automated adaptation of malware detection agents that are robust against attacks. We evaluate the efficacy of our approach for adaptive malware detection via benchmark evaluations with an established deep-learning classifier.

Item Type: Conference paper
Subjects: Security and privacy > Intrusion/anomaly detection and malware mitigation
Computing methodologies > Machine learning
Date Deposited: 18 Jul 2025 07:27
Last Modified: 18 Jul 2025 07:27
URI: https://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/1733

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