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Explainable Attention-Guided Stacked Graph Neural Networks for Malware Detection

Created by
  • Haebom

Author

Hossein Shokouhinejad, Roozbeh Razavi-Far, Griffin Higgins, Ali A Ghorbani

Outline

This paper proposes a novel stacking ensemble framework for graph-based malware detection and explanation. It extracts a Control Flow Graph (CFG) from a PE file and encodes its basic blocks using a two-stage embedding strategy. Using multiple GNN-based learners with different message-passing mechanisms, it captures complementary behavioral features. A meta-learner implemented as an attention-based multilayer perceptron quantifies the contributions of each underlying model and classifies malware. We introduce an ensemble-aware post-explanation technique that fuses edge-level importance scores from GNN explainers using attention weights, generating interpretable and model-independent explanations consistent with the final ensemble decision. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework improves classification performance while providing insightful interpretations of malware behavior.

Takeaways, Limitations

Takeaways:
Improved malware detection performance is demonstrated by utilizing various GNN-based learning machines.
Quantifying model contribution and improving interpretability through attention-based meta-learning.
Providing model-independent, interpretable explanations with ensemble-aware post-explanation techniques.
Presentation of an effective malware analysis framework using CFG of PE files.
Limitations:
Further verification of the generalization performance of the proposed method is needed.
Possible bias towards certain types of malware.
Further analysis is needed to determine the accuracy and reliability of post hoc explanation techniques.
Further research is needed to evaluate performance and applicability in real-world environments.
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