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Erschienen in: Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques 2/2015

01.05.2015 | Original Paper

Dueling hidden Markov models for virus analysis

verfasst von: Ashwin Kalbhor, Thomas H. Austin, Eric Filiol, Sébastien Josse, Mark Stamp

Erschienen in: Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques | Ausgabe 2/2015

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Abstract

Recent work has presented hidden Markov models (HMMs) as a compelling option for malware identification. However, some advanced metamorphic malware like MetaPHOR and MWOR have proven to be more challenging to detect with these techniques. In this paper, we develop the dueling HMM Strategy, which leverages our knowledge about different compilers for more precise identification. We also show how this approach may be combined with previous techniques to minimize the performance overhead. Additionally, we examine the HMMs in order to identify the meaning of these hidden states. We examine HMMs for four different compilers, hand-written assembly code, three virus construction kits, and two metamorphic malware families in order to note similarities and differences in the hidden states of the HMMs.

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Fußnoten
1
An expanded version of this section discussing hidden Markov models is available at http://​www.​cs.​sjsu.​edu/​~stamp/​RUA/​HMM.
 
2
Alternately, we could reasonably define “most likely” as the state sequence with the highest probability from among all possible state sequences. Dynamic programming (DP) can be used to efficiently find this particular solution. Note that the DP solution and the HMM solution are not necessarily the same.
 
3
In the dynamic programming (DP) sense, we would simply choose the sequence with the highest probability, namely \(UUUG\). Note that this differs from the optimal solution in the HMM sense.
 
4
While NGVCK remains difficult to detect, its false positive rate plummets.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Dueling hidden Markov models for virus analysis
verfasst von
Ashwin Kalbhor
Thomas H. Austin
Eric Filiol
Sébastien Josse
Mark Stamp
Publikationsdatum
01.05.2015
Verlag
Springer Paris
Erschienen in
Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques / Ausgabe 2/2015
Elektronische ISSN: 2263-8733
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11416-014-0232-9