CSMC: A Secure and Efficient Visualized Malware Classification Method Inspired by Compressed Sensing

Abstract

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), the sophistication and intelligence of sensors are continually evolving, playing increasingly important roles in smart homes, industrial automation, and remote healthcare. However, these intelligent sensors face many security threats, particularly from malware attacks. Identifying and classifying malware is crucial for preventing such attacks. As the number of sensors and their applications grow, malware targeting sensors proliferates. Processing massive malware samples is challenging due to limited bandwidth and resources in IoT environments. Therefore, compressing malware samples before transmission and classification can improve efficiency. Additionally, sharing malware samples between classification participants poses security risks, necessitating methods that prevent sample exploitation. Moreover, the complex network environments also necessitate robust classification methods. To address these challenges, this paper proposes CSMC (Compressed Sensing Malware Classification), an efficient malware classification method based on compressed sensing. This method compresses malware samples before sharing and classification, thus facilitating more effective sharing and processing. By introducing deep learning, the method can extract malware family features during compression, which classical methods cannot achieve. Furthermore, the irreversibility of the method enhances security by preventing classification participants from exploiting malware samples. Experimental results demonstrate that for malware targeting Windows and Android operating systems, CSMC outperforms many existing methods based on compressed sensing and machine or deep learning. Additionally, experiments on sample reconstruction and noise demonstrate CSMC’s capabilities in terms of security and robustness.