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Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 11, No. 4, 2021, 7495-7500 7495 

 

 
www.etasr.com Al-Marghilani: Comprehensive Analysis of IoT Malware Evasion Techniques 

 

Comprehensive Analysis of IoT Malware Evasion 
Techniques 

 

Abdulsamad Al-Marghilani 
Information Technology Department 

College of Computer Science & Information Technology 
Northern Border University 

Rafha, Saudi Arabia 
a.marghilani@nbu.edu.sa 

 
 
Abstract-Malware detection in Internet of Things (IoT) devices is 

a great challenge, as these devices lack certain characteristics 
such as homogeneity and security. Malware is malicious software 

that affects a system as it can steal sensitive information, slow its 

speed, cause frequent hangs, and disrupt operations. The most 

common malware types are adware, computer viruses, spyware, 

trojans, worms, rootkits, key loggers, botnets, and ransomware. 

Malware detection is critical for a system's security. Many 

security researchers have studied the IoT malware detection 
domain. Many studies proposed the static or dynamic analysis on 

IoT malware detection. This paper presents a survey of IoT 

malware evasion techniques, reviewing and discussing various 

researches. Malware uses a few common evasion techniques such 

as user interaction, environmental awareness, stegosploit, domain 

and IP identification, code obfuscation, code encryption, timing, 
and code compression. A comparative analysis was conducted 

pointing various advantages and disadvantages. This study 
provides guidelines on IoT malware evasion techniques. 

Keywords-IoT; malware; evasion techniques; challenges; 

security  

I. INTRODUCTION  

Internet of Things (IoT) is a system where various 
interconnected objects transfer data over a wireless network 
without requiring any human intervention [1, 2]. Various 
sensors, technologies, and software are embedded into these 
devices to connect and transfer data within the network [3]. IoT 
has evolved by utilizing various technologies such as 
embedded systems, machine learning, real-time analytics, and 
commodity sensors [4-6]. Many IoT applications are 
considered consumer applications, e.g. home security and 
wearable technologies [7]. Industrial applications of IoT 
usually monitor industrial systems such as smart logistics 
management and smart robotics [8]. In commercial 
applications, IoT devices work with each other to provide 
benefits such as smart offices and buildings, connected 
lighting, and so on [9]. Moreover, IoT is used in infrastructure 
to monitor and regulate areas, cities, or countries such as smart 
parking management  and connected charging stations [10]. 
Moreover, IoT devices are connected to the internet and 
transfer large amounts of data [11]. As IoT continues to grow, a 
critical issue is emerging regarding the privacy and the security 

of data transferred over the network. One such issue that affects 
data security in IoT is malware  [12]. 

IoT devices lack security features and are more vulnerable 
to malware attacks as they are always connected to the internet. 
Malware is software designed to gain unauthorized access to 
systems causing security threats  [13]. The most common types 
of malware are worms ,viruses, spyware, adware, ransomware, 
and trojan horses [14]. Worms duplicate themselves and spread 
from one system to another without requiring any human 
intervention  [15]. Viruses also duplicate themselves but differ 
from worms as they insert code in other programs [16]. 
Spyware steals sensitive information without the user's 
knowledge [17], while adware is a type of software that 
displays unnecessary advertisements [18]. Ransomware aims to 
lock a system  and demand money to unlock it [19]. Trojan 
horses aim to give unauthorized access to a system without the 
user’s knowledge [20]. Various attacks can affect IoT devices 
causing privacy and security issues. Some attacks that infect 
IoT devices are botnets, Mirai, and Prowli malware [21]. A 
botnet is a robot network controlled by a hacker who uses 
malware to hijack its devices [22]. Mirai is a malware that is 
capable of propagating itself and infects unsecured devices 
including IoT  [23], while Prowli is used to redirect users to 
fake websites. Based on the type of strategy, approaches to 
detect malware can be categorized into two main domains: 
static and dynamic analysis [24]. Malware detection can be 
performed on three bases: Behavior-based, specification -based, 
and signature-based (Figure 1). In behavior-based malware 
detection, the object is evaluated based on its actions [26] 
before executing actions to analyze suspicious activities and get 
rid of threats. This technique is further classified as static, 
dynamic, and hybrid. In specification-based malware detection, 
a policy or specification mediates events from any program 
[27], and this is also classified as static, dynamic, and hybrid. 
Signature-based malware detection is working with known 
threats and detects them easily by establishing unique 
identifiers. It is also classified as static, dynamic, and hybrid 
[28]. This study aims to analyze the malware detection 
techniques in IoT applications, compare the existing studies on 
IoT malware evasion techniques highlighting their advantages 
and limitations, and identify the various malware evasion 
techniques. 

Corresponding author: Abdulsamad Al-Marghilani 



 
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www.etasr.com Al-Marghilani: Comprehensive Analysis of IoT Malware Evasion Techniques 

 

 
Fig. 1.  Malware detection techniques  [25]. 

II. SECURITY ISSUES IN IOT APPLICATIONS 

Securing network communications more effectively and 
efficiently is considered a very critical issue. Mobile ad hoc 
networks are exposed to many packet-drop attacks because of 
their fundamental characteristics, such as vulnerabilities of the 
underlying typical routing protocols. The packet drop attacks 
include black-hole and grey-hole attacks. Various types of 
black-hole attacks and their defects were examined in [29]. 
Various schemes have been discovered for detecting black hole 
attacks, including learning, co-operative, and other schemes. 
Several techniques, including their core functionality and 
performance, were examined. The trust-based is a learning 
scheme, better than other schemes, as it had higher prevention 
nature against the attacks. On the other hand, most trust-based 
schemes failed to balance past and existing trust values. 
Moreover, as openness and flexibility made Android a popular 
mobile platform, it is targeted by massive mobile malware 
highlighting the need for better detection and prevention [30]. 
This study utilized a lightweight framework to identify 
malware in Android devices. Data analysis and malware 
detection were carried out on the server-side, reducing the use 
of mobile devices' resources and not affecting user's 
experience. In this method, machine learning was combined 
with network traffic analysis resulting in more accurate 
detection rates. Meanwhile, as this method is limited to existing 
malicious samples, more samples have to be collected and 
analyzed to improve it continuously.  

IoT devices lack security and are highly heterogenous [31], 
so many challenges arise on the cross-architecture detection of 
IoT malware. Various studies utilize dynamic or static analysis. 
Static analysis is more suitable for detecting malware in IoT 
devices, as it is more effective on multi-architecture devices. In 
[31], non-graph and graph-based malware detection methods 
were used. Graph-based methods were found to detect more 
accurately unseen and complicated malicious codes. The 
advantages and limitations were summarized based on 
processing time, detection analysis, and mechanism, while 
efficiency is required to be further enhanced. A graph-based 
lightweight detection method to deal with various malicious 
executable files in IoT devices is yet to be designed and 
developed. A modern malware type that can evade system 
security is Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), while its 
identification is a great challenge [32]. Antimalware and 
antivirus systems are conventional security systems that fail in 
APTs identification. This study used Advanced Evasive 
Techniques and examined the evasion and sophisticated attack 

techniques. As such malware can bypass a firewall with ease, a 
security system has to be effective to identify and avert such 
cyber-attacks in the future. 

III. CHALLENGES AND ASSOCIATED TECHNIQUES TO 
ENHANCE THE SECURITY AGAINST MALWARE 

IoT devices have various security issues as malware 
increases. Security researchers use machine learning techniques 
to deal with these security issues and enhance IoT devices' 
efficiency. A malware detection framework, called MalInsight, 
was proposed in [33]. In MalInsight, malware is described from 
three aspects: basic structure, high-, and low-level behavior. 
Malware was detected more effectively and accurately based 
on findings from file operations, structural features, network, 
and registry reflected from these three aspects. This framework 
can detect easily unseen malware. Various features are yet to 
be added, including work on privileged management schemes, 
authentication to restrict malware execution and reduce 
potential harm. Beaconing, another malware type difficult to 
detect, was studied in [34]. The collection and review of 
enough data to detect a Beaconing malware's behavior is a 
challenging task. Beaconing is one of the encryption -based 
attacks where hackers use encryption to hide their activities. 
Two unsupervised learning agents were used to detect 
malicious beaconing, a real-time and a periodic agent. The 
proposed algorithm can detect three different malicious 
beaconing behaviors: distortion, skipped exchanges, and 
combined distortion and skipped exchanges. Unsupervised 
machine learning algorithms can be used along with AI to 
check the accurate beaconing behaviors. Botnet activities 
detection is critical for the availability, security, and reliability 
of internet services. Existing systems find it difficult to detect 
novel botnets with high accuracy due to various reasons such as 
new botnets created to bypass current detection approaches, the 
similarity between normal and botnet traffic, and the high 
computational requirements of large amounts of data 
processing. A scalable and decentralized framework was 
utilized to address this problem in [35]. This framework 
discovered previously unseen botnet traffic, characterized the 
behavior of legitimate hosts, can detect novel botnets without 
any assumptions, and can be used in real-world scenarios. 
Despite the advantages of adaptive training and low numbers of 
false alarms, it has some drawbacks as network traffic increases 
and attackers change their methods constantly to avoid 
detection. 

IV. VARIOUS MALWARE ATTACKS IN IOT 

In [36], malware targeting mobile devices was explored as 
a considered serious threat. Fraudulent mobile apps and 
injected malicious apps are two types of mobile malware 
attacks. Three main phases were included in the analysis: pre-
processing, extraction, and grouping. Grouping strategy was 
used to choose valuable APIs to identify android malware apps 
and it included the upcoming three strategies. An effective 
classification model was proposed that combined API calls and 
permission requests. Three different strategies were proposed 
to choose the valuable API calls. Empirical analysis showed 
that the proposed system was effective in detecting mobile 



 
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malware and helped the process of mobile application analysis 
and malware forensic investigation. Cyber data breaches 
increase while investigating cyber-attacks manually is time-
consuming and error-prone. A novel machine-learning-based 
framework was proposed in [37] that identified cyber threats 
and investigated cyber security issues with incomplete or 
partial information. Mitigations for the identified threat 
incidents are yet to be integrated and automated. Reviews about 
malware Android platform were examined in [38], including 
mobile malware attacks, detection techniques, vulnerabilities, 
and security solutions over a certain period. Ransomware 
hijacks in files and resources were studied in [39], presenting a 
ransomware taxonomy, various factors and counteraction 
types, and threat success factors and techniques. Existing and 
upcoming security threats in IoT-enabled smart grids were 
studied in [40], discussing various data privacy concerns, attack 
motives, and data transfer techniques. Threat vectors in smart 
grids were classified into attacks against privacy, integrity, 
availability, and authentication. This paper also discussed the 
cyber kill chain which is a seven-step attack procedure. Time 
Sensitive Networking (TSN) was adopted for IoT and smart 
grids to allow real-time communication, while six open 
directions were proposed for smart grid connectivity. The 
challenges to secure a smart manufacturing system were 
explored in [41]. Smart manufacturing is an important 
component for industry and connects physical and digital 
environments through IoT technologies. Data analytics, 
machine learning, and cloud with industrial systems integration 
lead to potential benefits and new challenges. Various factors 
were discussed which include existing vulnerabilities, 
weaknesses, security of existing manufacturing industrial 
systems, and preparing for future security challenges.  

V. VARIOUS MALWARE EVASION TECHNIQUES IN IOT 

In [42], four methods were proposed to detect malware 
using hamming distance. This approach helps discover 
similarities between various samples, and it included All 
Nearest Neighbours (ANN), Weighted All Nearest Neighbours 
(WANN), First Nearest Neighbours (FNN), and K-Medoid 
based Nearest Neighbours (KMNN). These machine learning 
methods were used to detect malicious software having high 
precision and recall rates. A software-defined visual analytic 
system was proposed in [43], which was preferred for large 
analysis. Various classifications were performed by extracting 
image features using machine learning algorithms. The utilized 
classifiers were decision tree, SVM, random forest, and logistic 
regression. Decision tree and random-based classifiers were 
found to be the most accurate. In [44], machine learning 
techniques to detect malware were studied by examining 
unsolved issues, challenges, limitations, recent trends, and new 
research directions.  

The wide adoption of IoT by industrial systems led to an 
increase in malware. A malware analysis system was proposed 
in [45], where malware evasive behavior was detected by 
measuring the deviation from a program's normal behavior. 
The Analysis Evasion Malware Sandbox (AEMS) was very 
effective in malware detection. This system automatically 
detected the evasion in malware samples and provided 

reasonable accuracy. The Big Data Cybersecurity Analytics 
(BDCA) system, studied in [46], protects the organizational 
networks and data from cyber-attacks by analyzing data 
security. After conducting a systematic literature review, 
seventeen architectural tactics were identified to support twelve 
quality attributes such as scalability, performance, accuracy, 
security, and usability. Various factors are yet to be included 
such as analysis among tactics, trade-offs, and big data 
processing frameworks. As hacking attacks on industrial 
control systems increase and many security vulnerabilities are 
detected on industrial IoT, technical and regulatory 
perspectives were examined in [47] to solve the upcoming 
security threats. Resource exploration and energy consumption 
were significant challenges in the context of smart energy 
infrastructure. Two challenges arose from the legal perspective: 
balancing the obligations of Network and Information Security 
(NIS) with the desire for industrial IoT, and the need for 
guidance from authorities on IoT and Computer Emergency 
Response Teams (CERTS). Handling temporal dimensions of 
security, the shift of infrastructure from offline to online, the 
way to engage critical systems and their infrastructural 
complexity, the best way to address implementation gaps are 
areas yet to be focussed in detail. In [48], a malware analysis 
system was examined to characterize the malware behavior and 
improve the defense mechanism. This system considered the 
entire analysis environment which included the sandbox and a 
few other components. A fully automated system was 
developed as a solution to improve the dynamic malware 
analysis process. Integrating the malware analysis process with 
environment configuration made easy the deployment of a 
complex analysis environment. Malware Analysis Architecture 
based on SDN (MARS) provided useful analysis capabilities. 
Dynamic configuration is yet to be enhanced and an extensive 
analysis of the malware ecosystem is needed. Ensembles that 
comprise a set of classifiers were proposed as an effective 
approach to detect malware, but due to the high cost of data 
transfer, memory, and processing requirements, this approach 
failed to secure big data in the cloud. The Hybrid Consensus 
Pruning (HCP) method was proposed in [49] to address this 
problem, by combining several classifier classes into one 
scheme. HCP was found to be more effective than ensemble 
pruning through Directed Hill Climbing Ensemble Pruning 
(DHCEP), k-means pruning, and Ensemble Pruning via 
Individual Contribution (EPIC) ordering. This HCP method 
provided better ensemble classifiers to detect malware than the 
other methods, as shown in Table I. 

A classification of malware dynamic analysis evasion 
strategies was presented in [50]. Conventionally, a sandbox 
was introduced to suffer unplanned impacts from unknown 
software [51]. Thus, the term sandbox represents a segregated 
or highly managed environment for testing unverified 
programs. Due to equivalence in nature, Virtual Machines 
(VMs) and emulated environments are frequently viewed as 
sandboxes. However, in this study, the term sandbox is used to 
denote the isolated and contained environments that 
automatically examine the specific program without any human 
intervention. The isolating link, in this study, is the system’s 
autonomous nature. Evasion comprises a sequence of methods 



 
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applied by malware to maintain stealth, hinder efforts or avoid 
detection. For example, a major evasion strategy is 
fingerprinting [52]. The malware attempts to identify its 
environment by using fingerprinting and confirm if it is an 
analysis or production system. On the other hand, the counter 
evasion mechanisms try to hide the clues and cues which may 
reveal the analysis system. When a system exposes minimum 
clues to malware, then this system is highly transparent. 
Automated and manual analysis are the main terms that form 
the proposed classification. When an expert performs an 
analysis with the support of a debugger, then this is called 
manual analysis. On the other hand, if an expert utilizes the 
conventional sandboxing technology to execute a transparent 
debugger, it is considered as a Manual Dynamic Analysis 
(MDA). In contrast, automated analysis is performed by 
software or machine automatically. Detection is simply a 

perceptive process that checks whether a specific file is 
malicious. In addition, analysis is an understanding process that 
defines how malware functions. However, this segregating line 
is unclear at present as the functions of automated analysis 
implemented like sandboxes are expanding. Additionally, to 
report the behavior of malware, sandboxes are performing their 
functions as the primary automated detection techniques [53]. 
This study considers similar concepts, as the understanding of 
malware's behavior is regarded as manual and malware 
detection is regarded as automated. Although the MDA is 
efficient, it has serious drawbacks, e.g. it is time consuming. 
Examining a huge count of malware samples requests an 
effective agile method. Such requests led to an innovative 
pattern of analysis known as Automated Dynamic Analysis 
(ADA).  

TABLE I.  COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IOT MALWARE DETECTION USING VARIOUS EVASION TECHNIQUES 

Paper Techniques used Description Outcome Advantages / disadvantages 

[29] 
Learning, co-
operative, and other 
schemes. 

Fifteen techniques were involved and core 
functionalities were discussed. The performance of 
techniques to mitigate and detect a black hole attack 
was defined. 

Trust-based scheme was 
better when compared with 
other schemes. 

The trust-based scheme had high prevention 
nature. Nearly all trust-based methods failed 
to weigh balance accurately between past 
and existing trust values. 

[30] 
Lightweight network 
traffic analysis and 
machine learning. 

Machine learning algorithm was combined with 
network traffic analysis. This helped the detection of 
android malware. 

Android malware was 
detected. 

The detection rate was found to have high 
accuracy but was limited to existing 
malicious samples. 

[31] 

Non-graph and 
graph-based 
malware detection 
methods. 

Two groups of malware detection methods were 
used: non-graph and graph-based methods. 

Graph-based methods 
detected more accurately 
unseen and complicated 
malicious codes. 

This method can be used to improve 
efficiency in the future. A graph-based 
lightweight detection method is yet to be 
designed and developed. 

[32] 
Advanced evasive 
techniques. 

This study explored evasion techniques and 
sophisticated attacks utilized by present-day malware. 

Various malware analysis 
techniques were discussed. 

Advanced evasive techniques can bypass a 
firewall easily. An efficient security system 
is required to identify and avert cyber-
attacks in the future. 

[33] MalInsight. 

Malware was summarized from three aspects: basic 
structure, low, and high-level behavior. Malware was 
detected more effectively based on findings from 
operations on files, structural features, network, and 
registry which are reflected from the three aspects. 

The framework could easily 
detect unseen malware and 
help future researchers 
discover malware easily. 

Work on privileged management schemes 
and authentication to restrict the malware 
execution and reduce the potential harm is 
yet to be done. 

[34] 
Unsupervised 
machine learning 
algorithms. 

Two unsupervised learning agents, a real-time and a 
periodic one, were used to detect malicious 
beaconing. 

Three different malicious 
beaconing behaviors were 
detected: distortion, skipped 
exchanges, and combined. 

Unsupervised machine learning could be 
used along with AI to check beaconing 
behaviors. 

[35] 
Scalable and 
decentralized 
framework. 

Scalable and decentralized frameworks were used. 

Previously unseen botnet 
traffic was discovered and 
the behaviors of legitimate 
hosts were characterized. 

Although the merits of adaptive training and 
the low number of false alarms, attackers 
changed their method constantly to avoid 
detection. The constant evolving of network 
traffic was also a drawback. 

[37] 
Novel machine 
learning based 
framework. 

Investigating cyber-attacks through manual processes 
is time-consuming and error-prone. A novel machine 
learning based framework was proposed. 

Based on observed attack 
patterns, the proposed 
method identifies cyber 
threats. 

Proposed a method for investigating 
cybersecurity issues with partial information. 

[42] 
ANN, WANN, 
FNN, KMNN. 

Four methods were proposed to detect malware using 
hamming distance, helping to discover similarities 
between various samples. 

Machine learning methods 
were used to detect 
malicious software. 

High precision and recall rates were 
obtained. Other similarity measures with 
different features between two programs are 
yet to be defined. 

[49] 
Hybrid Consensus 
Pruning (HCP). 

An advanced ensemble pruning method combined 
several classifier classes into one scheme. 

Several analyses were made 
by comparing HCP with 
several pruning methods. 
HCP was the most effective. 

HCP provided better ensemble classifiers to 
detect malware. This work should be 
extended to internet traffic for security and 
mobile cloud computing. 



 
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VI. CONCLUSION 

This paper reviewed IoT malware detection and evasion-
based techniques. The advantages and disadvantages of 
existing evasion-based IoT malware detection techniques were 
discussed. Trust-based schemes, HCP, and graph-based 
methods are the most effective malware detection techniques. 
Malware evolves with high efficiency as attackers use 
advanced technologies to design malware that bypasses 
detection systems. As malware evolves, modern solutions are 
needed to detect and handle it. Malware evasion methods were 
analyzed, while classifications for automated and manual 
analysis were presented. The summarized advantages and 
limitations can be used by researchers to improve the efficiency 
of IoT malware detection systems [54-57]. The evasion 
attempts can be categorized as detection independent and 
detection dependent. Effective generic schemes, namely path 
exploration techniques, are still needed for detection 
independent strategy. 

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