IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,255,905
Granted Patent B2
US 12,255,905 · App. 17/725,352 · Granted Mar 18, 2025

Machine learning malware classifications using behavioral artifacts

Inventors: Vitaly Zaytsev (Beaverton, OR); Brett Meyer (Alpharetta, GA); Joel Robert Spurlock (Portland, OR)
Assignee: CrowdStrike, Inc.
H04L63/1425H04L63/145
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,255,905
App. No.
17/725,352
Filed
Apr 20, 2022
Granted
Mar 18, 2025
Kind
B2
Art Unit
2408
USPC
726/23
Abstract

Techniques and systems for a security service system configured with a sensor component including a machine learning (ML) malware classifier to perform behavioral detection on host devices. The security service system may deploy a sensor component to monitor behavioral events on a host device. The sensor component may generate events data corresponding to monitored operations targeted by malware. The system may map individual events from events data onto a behavioral activity pattern and generate process trees. The system may extract behavioral artifacts to build a feature vector used for malware classification and generate a machine learning (ML) malware classifier. The sensor component may use the ML malware classifier to perform asynchronous behavioral detection on a host device and process system events for malware detection.

Claims (53)

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

programming instructions configured to be executed by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from one or more monitored devices, events data for training data;

presenting false-negative data of the events data based on a labeled indicator of the false-negative data incorrectly labeled as false-negative or false-positive;

generating labeled data by relabeling one or more processes in the false-negative data;

storing the labeled data as the training data;

determining that the events data is associated with a malicious process;

determining to map individual events from the events data onto a behavioral activity pattern;

aggregating multiple events of the individual events into a single artifact, the multiple events produced by the malicious process;

generating a malware classifier based at least in part on extracting behavioral artifacts including the single artifact from the behavioral activity pattern and building a feature vector associated with the extracted behavior artifacts used for the malware classifier;

transmitting, to the one or more monitored devices, the malware classifier; and

receiving, from the one or more monitored devices, additional events data for additional training data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the feature vector includes one or more explicit features derived from a file system, a network, a registry, or a processes interaction.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the events data includes data produced by one or more processes, the one or more processes includes one or more of a network trace, a registry modification, a file system change, and a memory access.

4. The system of claim 3 , further comprising:

determining that the events data is associated with a severity level based at least in part on a classifier for predicting severity of an input data.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the events data is received over a predetermined period of time.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the behavioral activity pattern includes a process tree that indicates relationship information associated with one or more of an immediate parent process or a grandparent process.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining that the events data is associated with the malicious process includes receiving input to label at least a portion of the events data.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the events data is filtered to remove known safe behavioral events.

9. A method of behavioral detection on a monitored device, the method comprising:

transmitting, to one or more computing devices, events data associated with a malicious process, the events data including false-negative data having a labeled indicator incorrectly labeled as false-negative or false-positive, one or more processes in the false-negative data to be relabeled as labeled data and to be stored as training data;

generating a process tree based on the events data;

generating features indicating malware by aggregating data corresponding to portions of the process tree;

receiving, from the one or more computing devices, a machine learning model to classify input data by the features indicating malware;

receiving, from an input device, user input;

determining, using the machine learning model, that the user input includes a feature of the features indicating malware;

determining that a malicious process is associated with the feature; and

determining to stop the malicious process.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the events data are produced by at least one process or at least one thread.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

determining that the malicious process associated with the events data is classified as high severity.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

removing, from the process tree, all processes associated with the malicious process.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein generating the process tree includes monitoring, using the machine learning model, two or more process threads.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein determining to stop the malicious process comprises stopping a first process thread of the two or more process threads.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

transmitting, to one or more computing devices, events data associated with a malicious process, the events data including false-negative data having a labeled indicator incorrectly labeled as false-negative or false-positive, one or more processes in the false-negative data to be relabeled as labeled data and to be stored as training data;

generating a process tree based on the events data;

generating features indicating malware by aggregating data corresponding to portions of the process tree;

receiving, from the one or more computing devices, a machine learning model to classify input data by the features indicating malware;

receiving, from an input device, user input;

determining, using the machine learning model, that the user input includes a feature of the features indicating malware; and

determining to perform a remedial action based at least in part on the feature.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 15 , wherein the remedial action includes terminating a malicious process associated with the feature.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

removing, from the process tree, all processes associated with the malicious process.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 15 , wherein:

the process tree is generated based at least in part on a sliding process window for multiple processes, and

the sliding process window is associated with a start time and an end time.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, using the machine learning model, to monitor two or more process threads.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 20, 2022
From: ZAYTSEV, VITALY; MEYER, BRETT; SPURLOCK, JOEL ROBERT
To: CROWDSTRIKE, INC.
Reel/Frame 059745/0477 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20230344843A1 · Oct 26, 2023
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