Malware detection using convolutional neural network-di strategy polar fox optimization algorithm

Abstract

Malware attacks have escalated significantly with an increase of internet users and connected devices. With the rise of various types of malwares released by the hackers, constructing new competitive methods are necessary to identify the advanced malware. However, conventional malware detection struggles to identify new and evolving malware variants accurately because of its dependence on handcrafted features and static-signature based methods. To address this problem, this research proposes convolutional neural network (CNN) based di strategy polar fox optimization algorithm (DSPFOA) for malware detection to fine-tune the CNN parameters effectively which later assists to overcome the limitations of CNN. The model integrates the sine chaotic mapping and Cauchy operator mutation as DSPFOA prevents the model from local optima issue, and extends search space solution, also enhance convergence. This ensures that the CNN learns highly discriminative features which makes the system more accurate and robust in detecting both known and evolving malware variants. The CNN DSPFOA achieves a high accuracy of 99.65 and 99.76% by utilizing BIG2015 and Malimg dataset respectively compared to existing methods like masked self-supervised model with swin transformer (MalSort).