building-adversary-infrastructure-tracking-system skill

Building Adversary Infrastructure Tracking System

Overview

Adversary infrastructure tracking uses passive DNS records, certificate transparency logs, WHOIS registration data, and IP enrichment to discover, map, and monitor threat actor command-and-control (C2) networks. Attackers frequently reuse hosting providers, registrars, SSL certificates, and naming patterns across campaigns, enabling analysts to pivot from known indicators to discover new infrastructure. This skill covers building an automated tracking system that identifies infrastructure relationships, detects newly registered domains matching adversary patterns, and maintains a continuously updated map of threat actor networks.

When to Use

• When deploying or configuring building adversary infrastructure tracking system capabilities in your environment
• When establishing security controls aligned to compliance requirements
• When building or improving security architecture for this domain
• When conducting security assessments that require this implementation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+ with requests, dnspython, python-whois, shodan, networkx libraries
• API keys: SecurityTrails, PassiveTotal/RiskIQ, Shodan, VirusTotal
• Access to passive DNS data sources
• Understanding of DNS infrastructure, hosting, and domain registration
• Graph database (Neo4j) or NetworkX for relationship visualization

Key Concepts

Passive DNS

Passive DNS captures historical DNS resolution data, recording which domains resolved to which IPs and when. Unlike active DNS queries, passive DNS preserves historical relationships even after records change, enabling analysts to track infrastructure changes, identify shared hosting patterns, and discover related domains that resolved to the same IP addresses over time.

Infrastructure Pivoting

Pivoting identifies related infrastructure by following connections: IP pivot (find all domains on an IP), domain pivot (find all IPs a domain resolved to), WHOIS pivot (find domains with same registrant), certificate pivot (find hosts sharing SSL certificates), and NS/MX pivot (find domains using same name servers or mail servers).

Adversary Infrastructure Patterns

Threat actors exhibit patterns: preferred registrars (Namecheap, REG.RU, Tucows), preferred hosting (bulletproof hosting providers, cloud services), domain generation algorithms (DGA), consistent naming patterns, and certificate reuse across campaigns.

Workflow

Step 1: Passive DNS Infrastructure Discovery

import requests
import json
from collections import defaultdict
from datetime import datetime

class InfrastructureTracker:
    def __init__(self, securitytrails_key=None, vt_key=None, shodan_key=None):
        self.st_key = securitytrails_key
        self.vt_key = vt_key
        self.shodan_key = shodan_key
        self.infrastructure_graph = defaultdict(lambda: {"nodes": set(), "edges": []})

    def passive_dns_lookup(self, domain):
        """Query passive DNS for domain resolution history."""
        headers = {"apikey": self.st_key}
        url = f"https://api.securitytrails.com/v1/history/{domain}/dns/a"
        resp = requests.get(url, headers=headers, timeout=30)
        if resp.status_code == 200:
            records = resp.json().get("records", [])
            history = []
            for record in records:
                for value in record.get("values", []):
                    history.append({
                        "domain": domain,
                        "ip": value.get("ip", ""),
                        "first_seen": record.get("first_seen", ""),
                        "last_seen": record.get("last_seen", ""),
                        "type": record.get("type", 

Step 2: Build Infrastructure Graph

import networkx as nx

class InfrastructureGraph:
    def __init__(self):
        self.graph = nx.Graph()

    def add_discovery(self, discovery_data):
        """Add discovered infrastructure to graph."""
        for domain in discovery_data["domains"]:
            self.graph.add_node(domain, type="domain")
        for ip in discovery_data["ips"]:
            self.graph.add_node(ip, type="ip")
        for rel in discovery_data["relationships"]:
            self.graph.add_edge(
                rel["source"], rel["target"],
                relationship=rel["type"],
                first_seen=rel.get("first_seen", ""),
                last_seen=rel.get("last_seen", ""),
            )

    def find_clusters(self):
        """Identify infrastructure clusters."""
        components = list(nx.connected_components(self.graph))
        clusters = []
        for component in components:
            domains = [n for n in component if self.graph.nodes[n].get("type") == "domain"]
            ips = [n for n in component if self.graph.nodes[n].get("type") == "ip"]
            clusters.append({
                "size": len(component),
                "domains": sorted(domains),
                "ip

Step 3: Monitor for New Infrastructure

import time

class InfrastructureMonitor:
    def __init__(self, tracker, known_indicators):
        self.tracker = tracker
        self.known = set(known_indicators)
        self.alerts = []

    def check_new_registrations(self, patterns):
        """Check for newly registered domains matching adversary patterns."""
        import re
        new_domains = []
        for pattern in patterns:
            # Query SecurityTrails for new domains matching pattern
            headers = {"apikey": self.tracker.st_key}
            url = "https://api.securitytrails.com/v1/domains/list"
            params = {"include_ips": "true", "page": 1}
            body = {"filter": {"keyword": pattern}}
            resp = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=body, timeout=30)
            if resp.status_code == 200:
                records = resp.json().get("records", [])
                for record in records:
                    domain = record.get("hostname", "")
                    if domain not in self.known:
                        new_domains.append({
                            "domain": domain,
                            "pattern_matched": pattern,
                            "first_seen":

Validation Criteria

• Passive DNS queries return historical resolution data
• Reverse IP lookups discover co-hosted domains
• Infrastructure pivoting expands from seed indicators
• Graph analysis identifies clusters and hub nodes
• New infrastructure detected through pattern monitoring
• Reports generated with actionable recommendations

References

• Juniper: Threat Hunting with Passive DNS
• Censys: Advanced Persistent Infrastructure Tracking
• Embee Research: Malware Infrastructure with DNS Pivoting
• Validin: Passive DNS Threat Hunting
• SecurityTrails API
• Hunt.io: Uncovering Malicious Infrastructure