Microsoft and Intel project converts malware into images before analyzing it
Credit:
ZDNet
Microsoft and Intel have recently collaborated on a new research project that explored a new approach to detecting and classifying malware.
Called STAMINA (STAtic Malware-as-Image Network Analysis), the project relies on a new technique that converts malware samples into grayscale images and then scans the image for textural and structural patterns specific to malware samples.
The Intel-Microsoft research team said the entire process followed a few simple steps. The first consisted of taking an input file and converting its binary form into a stream of raw pixel data. Researchers then took this one-dimensional (1D) pixel stream and converted it into a 2D photo so that normal image analysis algorithms can analyze it.