For efficient malware removal, determination of malware threat levels, and
damage estimation, malware family classification plays a critical role. In this
paper, we extract features from malware executable files and represent them as
images using various approaches. We then focus on Generative Adversarial
Networks (GAN) for multiclass classification and compare our GAN results to
other popular machine learning techniques, including Support Vector Machine
(SVM), XGBoost, and Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM). We find that the
AC-GAN discriminator is generally competitive with other machine learning
techniques. We also evaluate the utility of the GAN generative model for
adversarial attacks on image-based malware detection. While AC-GAN generated
images are visually impressive, we find that they are easily distinguished from
real malware images using any of several learning techniques. This result
indicates that our GAN generated images would be of little value in adversarial
attacks.