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 credential compromise. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior in Azure Sentinel to identify and mitigate advanced persistent threats before they cause significant damage.

IOC Summary

Malware Family: SmartApeSG Total IOCs: 3 IOC Types: domain, url

KQL: Domain Hunt

// Hunt for DNS queries to known malicious domains
// Source: ThreatFox - SmartApeSG
let malicious_domains = dynamic(["bronzepavilion.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://bronzepavilion.top/signin/auth-json", "https://bronzepavilion.top/signin/route-script.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: Scheduled System Maintenance Job
  Description: A legitimate scheduled job runs a script that matches the IOC pattern due to similar file names or paths.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.name != "system_maintenance_script.sh" or file.path not contains "scheduled_jobs"

• Scenario: Admin Task - Log File Analysis
  Description: An administrator is analyzing log files using a tool like logrotate or rsyslog, which may trigger the IOC due to similar file names or command-line arguments.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.name not contains "logrotate" or process.name not contains "rsyslog"

• Scenario: Software Update Process
  Description: A legitimate software update process (e.g., using yum, apt, or msiexec) may trigger the rule due to matching command-line arguments or file paths.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.name not contains "yum" or process.name not contains "msiexec"

• Scenario: Database Backup Job
  Description: A database backup tool like mysqldump or pg_dump may generate files or commands that resemble the IOC pattern.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.name not contains "mysqldump" or process.name not contains "pg_dump"

• Scenario: Network Monitoring Tool Usage
  Description: A network monitoring tool like tcpdump or Wireshark may generate files or commands that match the IOC pattern.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.name not contains "tcpdump" or process.name not contains "wireshark"