ThreatFox: SmartApeSG IOCs

Hunt Hypothesis

The ThreatFox: SmartApeSG IOCs rule detects potential adversary activity linked to the SmartApeSG threat group, which is associated with malicious network traffic and command-and-control communication. SOC teams should proactively hunt for these IOCs in Azure Sentinel to identify and mitigate early-stage compromise from advanced persistent threats leveraging known malicious infrastructure.

IOC Summary

Malware Family: SmartApeSG Total IOCs: 9 IOC Types: url, domain

KQL: Domain Hunt

// Hunt for DNS queries to known malicious domains
// Source: ThreatFox - SmartApeSG
let malicious_domains = dynamic(["crystalrocketlab.top", "velvetcompassstudio.com", "silentquarry.top"]);
DnsEvents
| where Name has_any (malicious_domains)
| project TimeGenerated, Computer, Name, IPAddresses, QueryType
| order by TimeGenerated desc

KQL: Url Hunt

// Hunt for access to known malicious URLs
// Source: ThreatFox - SmartApeSG
let malicious_urls = dynamic(["https://crystalrocketlab.top/tenant/session-render", "https://crystalrocketlab.top/tenant/acl-layout.js", "http://5.161.242.221", "https://velvetcompassstudio.com/zip", "https://silentquarry.top/tenant/session-render", "https://silentquarry.top/tenant/acl-layout.js"]);
UrlClickEvents
| where Url has_any (malicious_urls)
| project Timestamp, AccountUpn, Url, ActionType, IsClickedThrough
| order by Timestamp desc

Required Data Sources

References

• ThreatFox — SmartApeSG

False Positive Guidance

• Scenario: Legitimate scheduled job using smartape command
  Description: A system administrator schedules a legitimate job using the smartape command for system diagnostics or maintenance.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the command line includes smartape and the process is associated with a known admin task (e.g., /usr/sbin/smartape -d).

• Scenario: Regular use of smartape for storage monitoring
  Description: The IT team uses smartape as part of their storage monitoring tools to check disk health or performance.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the command line includes smartape and the process is initiated from a known monitoring tool (e.g., /opt/storage_tools/smartape_check.sh).

• Scenario: System update or patching using smartape
  Description: A system update or patching process uses smartape to verify system integrity or apply patches.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the command line includes smartape and the process is initiated from a known update tool (e.g., /usr/local/bin/update_smartape.sh).

• Scenario: Log analysis using smartape parser
  Description: A log analysis tool uses smartape to parse and analyze system logs for performance or error tracking.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the command line includes smartape and the process is initiated from a known log analysis tool (e.g., /opt/log_analyzer/smartape_parser.py).

• Scenario: Third-party tool integration with smartape
  Description: A third-party system management tool integrates with smartape to collect system metrics or perform health checks.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the command line includes smartape and the process is