University of Florida Research Foundation, Incorporated

Jennifer Marie Sheldon

Prabhat Kumar Mishra

Zhixin Pan

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for hardware-assisted malware detection. One such system comprises a memory; and a hardware processor of a computing device operatively coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to execute a software application suspected of being malware; monitor behavior of the software application at run-time; and acquire an input time sequence of data records based on a trace analysis of the software application, wherein the input time sequence comprises a plurality of features of the software application. The hardware processor is further configured to classify the software application as being a malicious software application based on the plurality of features of the software application; and output a ranking of a subset plurality of features by their respective contributions towards the classification of the software application as being malicious software.

Hardware-assisted malware detection using explainable machine learning

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for test pattern generation to detect a hardware Trojan using delay-based analysis. One such method comprises determining a set of initial test patterns to activate the hardware Trojan within an integrated circuit design; and generating a set of succeeding test patterns to activate the hardware Trojan within the integrated circuit design using a reinforcement learning model. The set of initial test patterns can be applied as an input to the reinforcement learning model. Further, the reinforcement learning model can be trained with a stochastic learning scheme to increase a probability of triggering one or more rare nodes in the integrated circuit design and identify optimal test vectors to maximize delay-based side-channel sensitivity when the hardware Trojan is activated in the integrated circuit design. Other methods and systems are also provided.

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Gainesville, FL, United States of America

Jennifer Marie Sheldon