ThreatFox: AdaptixC2 IOCs

Hunt Hypothesis

This hunt detects adversary activity involving command and control communications linked to the AdaptixC2 threat actor by monitoring for matches against a curated set of 14 specific indicators of compromise. Proactively hunting for these IOCs in Azure Sentinel is critical to identify early-stage lateral movement or data exfiltration attempts before they escalate into full-blown incidents within the organization’s cloud infrastructure.

IOC Summary

Malware Family: AdaptixC2 Total IOCs: 14 IOC Types: ip:port

Type	Value	Threat Type	First Seen	Confidence
ip:port	`192[.]3[.]139[.]18:8080`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`138[.]124[.]84[.]7:8080`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`138[.]124[.]84[.]7:443`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`138[.]124[.]84[.]7:80`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`154[.]19[.]229[.]85:4321`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	75%
ip:port	`192[.]3[.]139[.]18:80`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`192[.]3[.]139[.]18:8443`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`18[.]226[.]81[.]143:8080`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`18[.]226[.]81[.]143:80`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`146[.]70[.]87[.]96:6579`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`18[.]226[.]81[.]143:443`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`185[.]213[.]20[.]250:8080`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`146[.]70[.]87[.]64:6579`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%
ip:port	`185[.]213[.]20[.]250:80`	botnet_cc	2026-07-16	100%

KQL: Ip Hunt

// Hunt for network connections to known malicious IPs
// Source: ThreatFox - AdaptixC2
let malicious_ips = dynamic(["185.213.20.250", "18.226.81.143", "154.19.229.85", "146.70.87.64", "192.3.139.18", "138.124.84.7", "146.70.87.96"]);
CommonSecurityLog
| where DestinationIP in (malicious_ips) or SourceIP in (malicious_ips)
| project TimeGenerated, SourceIP, DestinationIP, DestinationPort, DeviceAction, Activity
| order by TimeGenerated desc

KQL: Ip Hunt Device

// Hunt in Defender for Endpoint network events
let malicious_ips = dynamic(["185.213.20.250", "18.226.81.143", "154.19.229.85", "146.70.87.64", "192.3.139.18", "138.124.84.7", "146.70.87.96"]);
DeviceNetworkEvents
| where RemoteIP in (malicious_ips)
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, RemoteIP, RemotePort, InitiatingProcessFileName, ActionType
| order by Timestamp desc

Required Data Sources

Sentinel Table	Notes
`CommonSecurityLog`	Ensure this data connector is enabled
`DeviceNetworkEvents`	Ensure this data connector is enabled

References

ThreatFox — AdaptixC2

False Positive Guidance

Here are specific false positive scenarios for the ThreatFox: AdaptixC2 IOCs rule, including suggested filters and exclusions tailored for an enterprise environment:

Endpoint Protection Scanning of Quarantine Archives
- Scenario: The organization’s EDR solution (e.g., CrowdStrike Falcon or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint) periodically scans the Quarantine folder where AdaptixC2-related malware samples were previously isolated. During a scheduled deep scan, the agent generates network telemetry for these static files, triggering the rule against the known IOCs even though no active infection is present.
- Filter/Exclusion: Exclude traffic originating from EDR service accounts (e.g., svc-crowdstrike, LocalSystem) where the destination port is restricted to internal management ports (8443, 9901) and the process path contains \CrowdStrike\ or \Program Files\Microsoft Defender\.
Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) Enrichment Jobs
- Scenario: A scheduled nightly job in the SIEM platform (e.g., Splunk or IBM QRadar) performs “Threat Intelligence Feed Ingestion.” This process actively queries external ThreatFox APIs to validate and update the local IOC database, generating legitimate outbound connections to the specific AdaptixC2 IP addresses listed in the rule.
- Filter/Exclusion: Create a whitelist for the SIEM server’s hostname (e.g., siem-prod-01) and exclude any traffic where the user agent string contains keywords like Splunk-Forwarder, QRadar-Collector, or ThreatIntel-Sync.
Software Deployment via Configuration Management
- Scenario: The IT Operations team uses a configuration management tool (e.g., Ansible Tower or Microsoft SCCM) to push security policy updates.