Mohd Saqib, Samaneh Mahdavifar, Benjamin C. M. Fung, P. Charland
{"title":"A Comprehensive Analysis of Explainable AI for Malware Hunting","authors":"Mohd Saqib, Samaneh Mahdavifar, Benjamin C. M. Fung, P. Charland","doi":"10.1145/3677374","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In the past decade, the number of malware variants has increased rapidly. Many researchers have proposed to detect malware using intelligent techniques, such as Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL), which have high accuracy and precision. These methods, however, suffer from being opaque in the decision-making process. Therefore, we need Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based models to be explainable, interpretable, and transparent to be reliable and trustworthy. In this survey, we reviewed articles related to Explainable AI (XAI) and their application to the significant scope of malware detection. The article encompasses a comprehensive examination of various XAI algorithms employed in malware analysis. Moreover, we have addressed the characteristics, challenges, and requirements in malware analysis that cannot be accommodated by standard XAI methods. We discussed that even though Explainable Malware Detection (EMD) models provide explainability, they make an AI-based model more vulnerable to adversarial attacks. We also propose a framework that assigns a level of explainability to each XAI malware analysis model, based on the security features involved in each method. In summary, the proposed project focuses on combining XAI and malware analysis to apply XAI models for scrutinizing the opaque nature of AI systems and their applications to malware analysis.","PeriodicalId":50926,"journal":{"name":"ACM Computing Surveys","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":23.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ACM Computing Surveys","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3677374","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the past decade, the number of malware variants has increased rapidly. Many researchers have proposed to detect malware using intelligent techniques, such as Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL), which have high accuracy and precision. These methods, however, suffer from being opaque in the decision-making process. Therefore, we need Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based models to be explainable, interpretable, and transparent to be reliable and trustworthy. In this survey, we reviewed articles related to Explainable AI (XAI) and their application to the significant scope of malware detection. The article encompasses a comprehensive examination of various XAI algorithms employed in malware analysis. Moreover, we have addressed the characteristics, challenges, and requirements in malware analysis that cannot be accommodated by standard XAI methods. We discussed that even though Explainable Malware Detection (EMD) models provide explainability, they make an AI-based model more vulnerable to adversarial attacks. We also propose a framework that assigns a level of explainability to each XAI malware analysis model, based on the security features involved in each method. In summary, the proposed project focuses on combining XAI and malware analysis to apply XAI models for scrutinizing the opaque nature of AI systems and their applications to malware analysis.
期刊介绍:
ACM Computing Surveys is an academic journal that focuses on publishing surveys and tutorials on various areas of computing research and practice. The journal aims to provide comprehensive and easily understandable articles that guide readers through the literature and help them understand topics outside their specialties. In terms of impact, CSUR has a high reputation with a 2022 Impact Factor of 16.6. It is ranked 3rd out of 111 journals in the field of Computer Science Theory & Methods.
ACM Computing Surveys is indexed and abstracted in various services, including AI2 Semantic Scholar, Baidu, Clarivate/ISI: JCR, CNKI, DeepDyve, DTU, EBSCO: EDS/HOST, and IET Inspec, among others.