Masters Theses
Keywords and Phrases
automatic; email; malware; metadata; signature; ZIP
Abstract
In advanced, targeted malware attacks, the custom software tools used to package and send malicious files and messages can lead to distinctive metadata values that facilitate creation of a malware metadata signature. Manual creation of these signatures requires expert domain knowledge and is time-consuming and error-prone. Our goal is to automate this process. We created several methods of automatically generating malware metadata signatures for ZIP files and emails. We evaluated these methods by comparing signatures generated with these methods to existing expert-created signatures. We found automated methods for ZIP files and emails that are capable of generating metadata signatures that are comparable to the expert-created signatures.
Advisor(s)
Sedigh, Sahra
Committee Member(s)
Smutz, Charles
Taylor, Patrick
Department(s)
Computer Science
Degree Name
M.S. in Computer Science
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Publication Date
2025
Pagination
viii, 35 pages
Note about bibliography
Includes_bibliographical_references_(pages 32-34)
Rights
© 2025 Joel Schott , All Rights Reserved
Document Type
Thesis - Open Access
File Type
text
Language
English
Thesis Number
T 12499
Recommended Citation
Schott, Joel, "Automated Generation of Malware Metadata Signatures" (2025). Masters Theses. 8241.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses/8241
