An emerging threat Fileless malware: a survey and research challenges

Abstract With the evolution of cybersecurity countermeasures, the threat landscape has also evolved, especially in malware from traditional file-based malware to sophisticated and multifarious fileless malware. Fileless malware does not use traditional executables to carry-out its activities. So, it does not use the file system, thereby evading signature-based detection system. The fileless malware attack is catastrophic for any enterprise because of its persistence, and power to evade any anti-virus solutions. The malware leverages the power of operating systems, trusted tools to accomplish its malicious intent. To analyze such malware, security professionals use forensic tools to trace the attacker, whereas the attacker might use anti-forensics tools to erase their traces. This survey makes a comprehensive analysis of fileless malware and their detection techniques that are available in the literature. We present a process model to handle fileless malware attacks in the incident response process. In the end, the specific research gaps present in the proposed process model are identified, and associated challenges are highlighted.