Supporting Cybersecurity Tools (SOC Focused)
ShadowServer DashBoard
This dashboard offers cyber threat intelligence and internet security monitoring services. It allows users (typically vetted network defenders, national CERTs, and organizations) to access detailed reports about malicious activity, botnet infections, exposed services, and vulnerabilities observed across the global internet.
It is primarily used to help network operators and security teams identify and respond to threats affecting their networks or constituents. Access typically requires registration and approval
This Tool provides information about IP addresses, including whether they are considered malicious, the types of threats they may pose (e.g., brute force, port scanning), geolocation, reputation scores, and historical activity. It’s designed to help cybersecurity professionals assess the risk of specific IP addresses using data collected from the CrowdSec community
VirusTotal (Lookup, Threat Intelligence):
VirusTotal is a free online service that analyzes files and URLs for malware. SOC analysts use it to quickly assess the reputation of suspicious files, URLs, and domains by aggregating scan results from multiple antivirus engines. A must-have for initial assessments.
Shodan (Lookup, Reconnaissance):
Shodan is a search engine for internet-connected devices. It allows analysts to identify exposed services and devices, assess their configuration, and potentially uncover vulnerabilities. Useful for understanding an organization’s external attack surface.
Censys (Lookup, Reconnaissance):
Similar to Shodan, Censys provides a database of information about devices connected to the internet. It offers detailed reports on certificates, protocols, and configurations, helping analysts identify misconfigurations and potential attack vectors.
MISP (Threat Intelligence Sharing):
MISP (Malware Information Sharing Platform) is an open-source threat intelligence platform for sharing, storing, and correlating indicators of compromise (IOCs). SOCs use MISP to exchange threat data with other organizations and to enrich their own threat intelligence feeds.
CyberChef (Data Analysis, Decoding):
CyberChef is a web-based “cyber swiss army knife” that allows analysts to perform a wide range of data transformations, including encoding, decoding, encryption, and decryption. It’s invaluable for analyzing and manipulating data from various sources.
URLScan.io (URL Analysis, Sandbox):
URLScan.io is a free online service that scans and analyzes websites to identify malicious content and behavior. It provides detailed reports on the resources loaded by a website, the network connections it makes, and the JavaScript it executes. Great for dynamic analysis of URLs.
Hybrid-Analysis (Sandbox, Malware Analysis):
Hybrid-Analysis is a free online sandbox that allows analysts to submit files for dynamic analysis. It provides detailed reports on the behavior of the file, including the system calls it makes, the network connections it establishes, and the files it modifies.
Maltego (OSINT, Graph Analysis):
Maltego is a powerful OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) tool that allows analysts to map out relationships between different entities, such as domains, email addresses, IP addresses, and people. It’s used for reconnaissance, threat intelligence gathering, and incident investigation.
Dnstwist (Domain Enumeration, Typosquatting):
Dnstwist is a tool that identifies potentially malicious domains that are similar to a target domain. It can be used to detect typosquatting attacks, phishing campaigns, and other fraudulent activities. (GitHub repository)
AbuseIPDB (IP Reputation):
AbuseIPDB is a community-based IP address blacklist that helps analysts identify malicious IP addresses. It aggregates reports of abuse from various sources and provides a reputation score for each IP address. Useful for quickly assessing the trustworthiness of an IP address.
Have I Been Pwned? (Credential Monitoring):
Although not a direct SOC tool in terms of response, it’s invaluable for knowing if credentials associated with the organization have been compromised in public data breaches.
AI and Machine Learning Augmentation:
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Custom Scripts & Notebooks (Python, Jupyter, etc.): SOCs often develop custom scripts and Jupyter notebooks using Python and other languages to automate tasks, analyze data, and build machine learning models. These are very tailored to the specific data and tasks that the SOC faces. These are not tools in themselves but the framework to make one
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Automated Rule Generation (using AI platforms): Several platforms now provide the capability to analyze data and suggest or even automatically generate SIEM rules (e.g., Splunk’s Machine Learning Toolkit in conjunction with custom searches). This is an emerging field