Advanced Investigation with MISP

A complete guide to running advanced Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) investigations with MISP (Malware Information Sharing Platform).

MISP as an investigation tool

MISP is not just for sharing indicators. It is a powerful investigation tool to correlate events, analyze attack campaigns and track threat actors.

MISP investigation capabilities

Automatic indicator correlation
Timeline analysis of events
Clustering of malicious activity
Relationship graph visualization
Threat actor attribution

Setting up for investigations

Essential enrichment modules

Module	Purpose	Investigation use
VirusTotal	File and URL analysis	IOC validation, variant detection
PassiveTotal	Passive DNS lookups	Tracing attack infrastructure
Shodan	Device search	Identifying exposed services
YARA	Pattern detection	Malware classification

Investigation methodology with MISP

Phase 1: Initial collection

Import suspicious indicators
Create the initial event
Classification tagging
Automatic enrichment

Phase 2: Correlation

Look for correlations
Timeline analysis
Identify clusters
Links to known campaigns

Phase 3: Expansion

Pivot on correlated IOCs
Infrastructure search
TTP analysis
Actor attribution

Phase 4: Synthesis

Report generation
Indicator export
Sharing with the community
Playbook updates

Case study: investigating an APT campaign

Scenario: an unknown malware is detected

Your SIEM has detected a suspicious outbound connection to an unknown domain. You need to investigate to determine whether it is a new APT campaign.

Step 1: Initial import into MISP

# Create a new event
Event: "Suspicious domain communication"
Info: "Potential APT campaign - Domain: evil-domain.com"
Date: 2025-01-07
TLP: Amber

# Add the initial IOCs
Attribute 1: Domain|evil-domain.com
Attribute 2: IP|185.243.112.45
Attribute 3: URL|http://evil-domain.com/config.php

Step 2: Automatic enrichment

VirusTotal: reputation check
PassiveTotal: DNS history
Shodan: services exposed on the IP
ThreatFox: known IOC lookup

Step 3: Correlation and pivoting

Correlation results:

3 similar events in the last 30 days
Infrastructure shared with the APT29 group
TTPs similar to the "CozyBear" campaign
Characteristic self-signed SSL certificates

Step 4: Producing the investigation report

Conclusion: a new APT29 campaign is confirmed, targeting the financial sector with renewed infrastructure but TTPs similar to previous campaigns.

Advanced techniques

Using MISP galaxies

MISP galaxies add context to your investigations by linking your observations to recognized frameworks:

MITRE ATT&CK: Technique classification
Threat Actors: Activity attribution
Malware: Family classification
Tools: Identifying the tools used

Automation with PyMISP

from pymisp import PyMISP

# Configuration
misp = PyMISP('https://your-misp-instance.com', 'your-api-key')

# Automated search for correlated events
def find_related_campaigns(ioc, days=30):
    events = misp.search(
        value=ioc,
        category=['Network activity', 'Payload delivery'],
        published=True,
        timestamp=f'{days}d'
    )
    
    for event in events:
        print(f"Event {event.id}: {event.info}")
        # Analyze correlated attributes
        correlations = misp.get_event_correlations(event.id)
        print(f"Correlations found: {len(correlations)}")

# Example usage
find_related_campaigns("evil-domain.com")

Visualization with MISP-Dashboard

Use MISP-Dashboard to visualize your investigations:

Geographic maps of incidents
Activity timelines
Trend charts
Attribution statistics

Investigation best practices

⚠️ Watch out for

Always validate automatic correlations
Document your investigation process
Respect TLP levels when sharing
Keep an investigation log
Check for false positives

Recommended structure for an investigation event

Info: "[INVESTIGATION] Campaign Name - Brief Description"
Tags: 
  - tlp:amber
  - investigation:ongoing
  - threat-actor:suspected-group
  - mitre-attack:t1071.001

Attributes by category:
  - Network Activity: IPs, domains, URLs
  - Payload: Hashes, filenames
  - Artifacts: Registry keys, file paths
  - Attribution: TTPs, tools, malware families

MISP objects:
  - File objects for samples
  - Domain-IP objects for infrastructure
  - Attack-pattern objects for TTPs

Further resources

Documentation

Complementary tools

• TheHive (Case Management)
• Cortex (enrichment)
• MISP-Dashboard (visualization)
• Viper (malware analysis)

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