Phylogenetic Malware Classification via Dynamic Trace Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current approaches to malware classification are inadequate in keeping pace with the rapid evolution of malware, as they rely heavily on manual analysis and fail to efficiently identify the relationships between new and existing malicious programs, leading to delayed response times in defense against emerging threats.
Innovation Solution
The use of phylogenetic techniques to classify malware by reconstructing the evolutionary history of malware programs based on dynamic traces of execution commands, constructing a reference phylogeny, and classifying unknown programs against this phylogeny, thereby determining their lineage and potential variants or hybrids.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual analysis is used to classify malware, then analysis accuracy can be maintained, but response time becomes too slow to keep pace with accelerating attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical analysis with automated phylogenetic classification system that uses dynamic traces and evolutionary algorithms to classify malware, achieving both speed and accuracy by substituting human analysis with computational methods
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary classification by constructing reference phylogenies from dynamic traces before actual malware analysis, enabling rapid categorization of new malware variants by comparing them against pre-built evolutionary trees rather than performing full manual analysis
2Reliability
If traditional malware classification methods are used, then existing malware can be identified, but new hybrid variants and rapid evolution cannot be detected efficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic phylogenetic trees that evolve as new malware is discovered, allowing the classification system to adapt to new hybrid variants and evolution patterns rather than relying on static signature databases, thereby improving both reliability and adaptability
Solution Approach 2:
The phylogenetic classification system serves multiple functions: identifying known malware families, detecting new hybrid variants, tracing evolutionary relationships, and enabling rapid response to emerging threats, making it universally applicable to diverse malware types including traditional and hybrid variants
Data Source
AI summary
Software, such as malware, may be classified using phylogenetic techniques. An evolutionary history of a representative set of software programs may be reconstructed to generate a reference phylogeny. Dynamic traces of the representative software programs may be obtained. The dynamic traces may include time-ordered sequences of execution commands extracted from running software binaries. Metrics may be developed using the dynamic traces. One or more unknown software programs may then be classified against the reference phylogeny using the metrics developed using the dynamic traces of the representative set of software programs.