Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis

Malware analysis is a crucial area of cybersecurity, focusing on identifying, categorizing, and studying malicious software to prevent it from posing a threat to computer systems. This study introduces a new approach to malware analysis by integrating two methods, Shared Code Analysis (SCA) and Shar...

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Main Authors: Narayandas Sai Ramana Vashista, K. Abhimanyu Kumar Patro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11045919/
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author Narayandas Sai Ramana Vashista
K. Abhimanyu Kumar Patro
author_facet Narayandas Sai Ramana Vashista
K. Abhimanyu Kumar Patro
author_sort Narayandas Sai Ramana Vashista
collection DOAJ
description Malware analysis is a crucial area of cybersecurity, focusing on identifying, categorizing, and studying malicious software to prevent it from posing a threat to computer systems. This study introduces a new approach to malware analysis by integrating two methods, Shared Code Analysis (SCA) and Shared Attribute Analysis (SAA). The SCA component searches for similarities in code within multiple malware samples using the MinHash techniques. The SAA component uses the Jaccard indexing technique to analyze and approximate similarity based on malware samples’ attributes. The visualization is implemented using NetworkX with Graphviz, where nodes represent individual malware samples and edges represent close relations. The visualization is provided as a PNG file, demonstrating the grouping of related malware samples according to their attributes. A real-life case based on malware samples from GitHub repositories illustrates the application of the proposed methodology. The integration of the Jaccard Index and MinHash provides an extensive method for covering the relationships among malware and enhancing detection and categorization steps. The proposed approach not only provides a better understanding of code patterns, but it also helps visualize attribute-based maximum similarity, making it a valuable tool for researchers and cybersecurity professionals.
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spelling doaj-art-9a358c88bb2a43b0b6d0281ef07485db2025-08-20T03:27:14ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-011310748210749810.1109/ACCESS.2025.358216411045919Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute AnalysisNarayandas Sai Ramana Vashista0https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7186-5805K. Abhimanyu Kumar Patro1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7807-7874Department of Mechatronics, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, IndiaDepartment of Mechatronics, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, IndiaMalware analysis is a crucial area of cybersecurity, focusing on identifying, categorizing, and studying malicious software to prevent it from posing a threat to computer systems. This study introduces a new approach to malware analysis by integrating two methods, Shared Code Analysis (SCA) and Shared Attribute Analysis (SAA). The SCA component searches for similarities in code within multiple malware samples using the MinHash techniques. The SAA component uses the Jaccard indexing technique to analyze and approximate similarity based on malware samples’ attributes. The visualization is implemented using NetworkX with Graphviz, where nodes represent individual malware samples and edges represent close relations. The visualization is provided as a PNG file, demonstrating the grouping of related malware samples according to their attributes. A real-life case based on malware samples from GitHub repositories illustrates the application of the proposed methodology. The integration of the Jaccard Index and MinHash provides an extensive method for covering the relationships among malware and enhancing detection and categorization steps. The proposed approach not only provides a better understanding of code patterns, but it also helps visualize attribute-based maximum similarity, making it a valuable tool for researchers and cybersecurity professionals.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11045919/Malware analysisJaccard indexMinHashnetwork visualizationcybersecuritydata mining
spellingShingle Narayandas Sai Ramana Vashista
K. Abhimanyu Kumar Patro
Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis
IEEE Access
Malware analysis
Jaccard index
MinHash
network visualization
cybersecurity
data mining
title Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis
title_full Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis
title_fullStr Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis
title_short Enhancing Malware Analysis Using Data Visualization Through Shared Code and Attribute Analysis
title_sort enhancing malware analysis using data visualization through shared code and attribute analysis
topic Malware analysis
Jaccard index
MinHash
network visualization
cybersecurity
data mining
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11045919/
work_keys_str_mv AT narayandassairamanavashista enhancingmalwareanalysisusingdatavisualizationthroughsharedcodeandattributeanalysis
AT kabhimanyukumarpatro enhancingmalwareanalysisusingdatavisualizationthroughsharedcodeandattributeanalysis