Antivirus evasion techniques in modern malware

Barchuk, Bogdan and Volkov, Kyrylo (2025) Antivirus evasion techniques in modern malware. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 26 (2). pp. 3154-3166. ISSN 2581-9615

Cybercriminals use new antivirus evasion techniques in their malware to continue operating in a system despite security programs. It explores how the newest malware uses obfuscation, packing, anti-debugging, and tampering with system security to bypass modern protection solutions at endpoints. The research points out that, attackers find ways to take advantage of weaknesses in antivirus heuristics, signature databases, and models that analyze behaviors. Hackers give additional focus to modifying programs, editing data in the hex format, dodging debuggers, and using file-loading tools. The research group also studied how measures like Windows’ SmartScreen and SafeSEH prevent bad software from being started. Detection by today’s antivirus solutions has improved, but it turns out that most evasion techniques can still work because they are flexible and mutable. As a result, organizations must always work on new methods of preventing attacks and stay informed about any threats that may arise.