URLhaus: 176-65-139-209 Malicious URLs

Hunt Hypothesis

This hunt detects adversary behavior where internal Azure resources initiate outbound connections to a specific cluster of 13 known malicious URLs associated with the IP address 176.65.139.209, indicating potential data exfiltration or command-and-control activity. The SOC team should proactively hunt for this pattern in Azure Sentinel to immediately identify and isolate compromised assets before they can establish persistent communication channels with external threat actors.

IOC Summary

Threat: 176-65-139-209 Total URLs: 13 Active URLs: 11

KQL: Url Dns Hunt

// Hunt for DNS resolution of URLhaus malicious domains
// Threat: 176-65-139-209
let malicious_domains = dynamic(["176.65.139.209"]);
DnsEvents
| where Name has_any (malicious_domains)
| project TimeGenerated, Computer, Name, IPAddresses
| order by TimeGenerated desc

KQL: Url Proxy Hunt

// Hunt for web traffic to URLhaus malicious domains
let malicious_domains = dynamic(["176.65.139.209"]);
CommonSecurityLog
| where RequestURL has_any (malicious_domains) or DestinationHostName has_any (malicious_domains)
| project TimeGenerated, SourceIP, RequestURL, DestinationHostName, DeviceAction
| order by TimeGenerated desc

Required Data Sources

References

• URLhaus

False Positive Guidance

Here are 4 specific false positive scenarios and their corresponding filters for the URLhaus: 176-65-139-209 Malicious URLs detection rule in an enterprise environment:

• Scenario: Automated Cloud Backup Synchronization

  • Context: Enterprise backup solutions like Veeam Backup & Replication or Rubrik often initiate scheduled jobs to sync metadata and logs with cloud storage endpoints. If the IP 176.65.139.209 is part of a public CDN or a specific cloud provider’s API gateway used by these tools, the backup service will generate HTTP/HTTPS traffic that matches the rule’s signature.
  • Filter/Exclusion: Create an exclusion based on the Process Name (Veeam.Backup.Service.exe or rubrik-agent) and restrict the detection to exclude traffic originating from the specific Backup Service Account (e.g., DOMAIN\svc_backup_prod).

• Scenario: Third-Party Patch Management Scans

  • Context: Tools such as Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM/MECM) or Ivanti Neurons perform nightly vulnerability scans and patch deployments. These agents frequently query external repositories or update servers hosted at 176.65.139.209 to retrieve patch manifests, which may be misidentified as malicious URL access by the rule.
  • Filter/Exclusion: Implement a filter that excludes traffic where the User Agent string contains “SCCM-Agent” or “Ivanti-Scanner,” and limit the scope to business hours (e.g., 02:00–06:00) when these scheduled jobs typically run.

• Scenario: Enterprise Email Security Gateway Traffic

  • Context: The organization’s email gateway