Detecting malicious email attachments using context-specific feature sets

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques for an email security system to detect a malicious email and take remedial actions in response to the detected malicious email. The techniques described herein may enable the email security system to detect whether an email is malicious based on whether one or more files attached to the email are malicious. In some cases, the email security system determines whether an email attachment file is malicious based on a set of features that are specific to both a classification of the email (e.g., a semantic classification of the email) and a format of the email attachment file.