This hunt detects adversary behavior involving the deployment of Cobalt Strike tools by matching network and host telemetry against a curated set of sixteen known indicators of compromise. The SOC team should proactively hunt for these signatures in Azure Sentinel to rapidly identify active post-exploitation frameworks that often serve as a precursor to lateral movement and data exfiltration within the enterprise environment.
Malware Family: Cobalt Strike Total IOCs: 16 IOC Types: ip:port
| Type | Value | Threat Type | First Seen | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ip:port | 168[.]144[.]45[.]2:8080 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 168[.]144[.]45[.]2:443 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 168[.]144[.]45[.]2:80 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 106[.]14[.]243[.]66:5555 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 123[.]57[.]243[.]182:80 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 8[.]135[.]47[.]140:80 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 8[.]135[.]47[.]140:8080 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 49[.]7[.]215[.]149:443 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 49[.]7[.]215[.]149:111 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 49[.]7[.]215[.]149:8080 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 49[.]7[.]215[.]149:22 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 49[.]7[.]215[.]149:80 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 45[.]87[.]53[.]6:8890 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 49[.]7[.]215[.]149:3389 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 47[.]238[.]100[.]128:22 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-28 | 100% |
| ip:port | 158[.]94[.]211[.]163:24443 | botnet_cc | 2026-07-27 | 75% |
// Hunt for network connections to known malicious IPs
// Source: ThreatFox - Cobalt Strike
let malicious_ips = dynamic(["47.238.100.128", "158.94.211.163", "168.144.45.2", "45.87.53.6", "8.135.47.140", "106.14.243.66", "49.7.215.149", "123.57.243.182"]);
CommonSecurityLog
| where DestinationIP in (malicious_ips) or SourceIP in (malicious_ips)
| project TimeGenerated, SourceIP, DestinationIP, DestinationPort, DeviceAction, Activity
| order by TimeGenerated desc
// Hunt in Defender for Endpoint network events
let malicious_ips = dynamic(["47.238.100.128", "158.94.211.163", "168.144.45.2", "45.87.53.6", "8.135.47.140", "106.14.243.66", "49.7.215.149", "123.57.243.182"]);
DeviceNetworkEvents
| where RemoteIP in (malicious_ips)
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, RemoteIP, RemotePort, InitiatingProcessFileName, ActionType
| order by Timestamp desc
| Sentinel Table | Notes |
|---|---|
CommonSecurityLog | Ensure this data connector is enabled |
DeviceNetworkEvents | Ensure this data connector is enabled |
Scheduled Backup Jobs Utilizing PowerShell
System.Net.HttpWebRequest or similar networking classes that match the specific IOCs for Cobalt Strike’s beacon communication, triggering a false positive during routine maintenance windows.Veeam.Backup.Service.exe, commvault.cmd) and the specific scheduled task ID ({GUID}) associated with these backup jobs.IT Admins Running Automated Compliance Audits
qualysPC.exe, tenable_agent.exe) running under specific service accounts (e.g., svc_compliance_audit) during defined business hours or maintenance windows.Software Deployment via SCCM/Intune
ccmsetup.exe or Microsoft.IntuneManagementAgent.exe, specifically targeting traffic destined for known internal distribution point IP ranges.**Internal Monitoring and Observability