Help With My Dissertation Project.

Question

Hey guys just need some help with my project. Basically what i need is a lot of malware files or virus files that i can open up on my computer and edit the code inside. I basically need to test anti virus software on a VM using my own malware files. With advice the best way to go about this is to get malware files that are already made and improve them with a few lines of code and essentially that classes as my own malware file. My question is where can i get malware files that won't harm my computer but im allowed to open them up on a editor for example vs code and work on them.

Id also like to have the malware code as an .exe file so when i run it on the VM machine i have a seperate machine that will show me what the file is actually doing. But really what i need is a place where i can download some of these files and they aren't actually files that will harm my computer but files that are disabled malware lets say and i can edit them and later on test the same files against anti - virus software.

Any links or tips or videos to help guide me in this will be greatly apprieciated.