The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Mal class: a deep learning approach for automatic classification of malware images

Mal class: a deep learning approach for automatic classification of malware images
Mal class: a deep learning approach for automatic classification of malware images

These days, malware evolves and multiplies exponentially through structural changes and camouflage using methods like encryption, obfuscation, polymorphism, and metamorphism. As deep learning has advanced, techniques like convolutional neural networks (CNN) have become powerful instruments for identifying complex patterns in this malicious software. The present study leverages CNN's capacity to detect patterns in malware datasets generated from RGB or images in greyscale and to determine the global structure of code that has been converted into an image. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are a method of deep learning that has recently demonstrated better performance than conventional learning algorithms, particularly in applications like image categorization. Motivated by this result, a CNN-based malware sample categorisation architecture is proposed. After converting binaries of malware to monochrome images, we train a CNN to classify the images.

Convolution Neural Network, Deep Learning, Maling dataset, Malware Image Classification, Malware visualisation
1329-1333
IEEE
Divya, S.
3ee4e63f-4f55-41da-80ae-18de34842645
Divya, S.
3ee4e63f-4f55-41da-80ae-18de34842645

Divya, S. (2025) Mal class: a deep learning approach for automatic classification of malware images. In 4th International Conference on Sentiment Analysis and Deep Learning, ICSADL 2025 - Proceedings. IEEE. pp. 1329-1333 . (doi:10.1109/ICSADL65848.2025.10933410).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

These days, malware evolves and multiplies exponentially through structural changes and camouflage using methods like encryption, obfuscation, polymorphism, and metamorphism. As deep learning has advanced, techniques like convolutional neural networks (CNN) have become powerful instruments for identifying complex patterns in this malicious software. The present study leverages CNN's capacity to detect patterns in malware datasets generated from RGB or images in greyscale and to determine the global structure of code that has been converted into an image. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are a method of deep learning that has recently demonstrated better performance than conventional learning algorithms, particularly in applications like image categorization. Motivated by this result, a CNN-based malware sample categorisation architecture is proposed. After converting binaries of malware to monochrome images, we train a CNN to classify the images.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 18 February 2025
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2025 IEEE.
Venue - Dates: 4th International Conference on Sentiment Analysis and Deep Learning, ICSADL 2025, , Bhimdatta, Nepal, 2025-02-18 - 2025-02-20
Keywords: Convolution Neural Network, Deep Learning, Maling dataset, Malware Image Classification, Malware visualisation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 503047
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503047
PURE UUID: 8a310419-92fd-4a4e-8324-6ab89226539e
ORCID for S. Divya: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7302-7146

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 17 Jul 2025 16:54
Last modified: 18 Jul 2025 02:17

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: S. Divya ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×