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Article
Simple substitution distance and metamorphic detection
Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques (2013)
  • Gayathri Shanmugam, San Jose State University
  • Richard M. Low, San Jose State University
  • Mark Stamp, San Jose State University
Abstract

To evade signature-based detection, metamorphic viruses transform their code before each new infection. Software similarity measures are a potentially useful means of detecting such malware. We can compare a given file to a known sample of metamorphic malware and compute their similarity—if they are sufficiently similar, we classify the file as malware of the same family. In this paper, we analyze an opcode-based software similarity measure inspired by simple substitution cipher cryptanalysis. We show that the technique provides a useful means of classifying metamorphic malware.

Keywords
  • Metamorphic detection,
  • Malware,
  • Metamorphic malware,
  • cryptanalysis,
  • computer science,
  • computer engineering
Publication Date
2013
Publisher Statement
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Citation Information
Gayathri Shanmugam, Richard M. Low and Mark Stamp. "Simple substitution distance and metamorphic detection" Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques Vol. 9 Iss. 3 (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mark_stamp/11/