Enhancing Malware Detection by Integrating Machine Learning with Cuckoo Sandbox

Abstract: In the modern era, malware is experiencing a significant increase in both its variety and quantity, aligning with the widespread adoption of the digital world. This surge in malware has emerged as a critical challenge in the realm of cybersecurity, prompting numerous research endeavors and contributions to address the issue. Machine learning algorithms have been leveraged for malware detection due to their ability to uncover concealed patterns within vast datasets. However, deep learning algorithms, characterized by their multi-layered structure, surpass the limitations of traditional machine learning approaches. By employing deep learning techniques such as CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) and RNN (Recurrent Neural Network), this study aims to classify and identify malware extracted from a dataset containing API call sequences. The performance of these algorithms is compared with that of conventional machine learning methods, including SVM (Support Vector Machine), RF (Random Forest), KNN (K-Nearest Neighbors), XGB (Extreme Gradient Boosting), and GBC (Gradient Boosting Classifier), all using the same dataset. The outcomes of this research demonstrate that both deep learning and machine learning algorithms achieve remarkably high levels of accuracy, reaching up to 99% in certain cases.