Automating IOC Enrichment

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Building a SOAR playbook that automatically enriches SIEM alerts with threat intelligence context before routing to analysts
• Creating a Python pipeline for bulk IOC enrichment from phishing email submissions
• Reducing analyst mean time to triage (MTTT) by pre-populating alert context with VT, Shodan, and MISP data

Do not use this skill for fully automated blocking decisions without human review — enrichment automation should inform decisions, not execute blocks autonomously for high-impact actions.

Prerequisites

• SOAR platform (Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Tines, or n8n) or Python 3.9+ environment
• API keys: VirusTotal, AbuseIPDB, Shodan, and at minimum one TIP (MISP or OpenCTI)
• SIEM integration endpoint for alert consumption
• Rate limit budgets documented per API (VT: 4/min free, 500/min enterprise)

Workflow

Step 1: Design Enrichment Pipeline Architecture

Define the enrichment flow for each IOC type:

SIEM Alert → Extract IOCs → Classify Type → Route to enrichment functions
  IP Address → AbuseIPDB + Shodan + VirusTotal IP + MISP
  Domain → VirusTotal Domain + PassiveTotal + Shodan + MISP
  URL → URLScan.io + VirusTotal URL + Google Safe Browse
  File Hash → VirusTotal Files + MalwareBazaar + MISP
→ Aggregate results → Calculate confidence score → Update alert → Notify analyst

Step 2: Implement Python Enrichment Functions

import requests
import time
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from typing import Optional

RATE_LIMIT_DELAY = 0.25  # 4 requests/second for VT free tier

@dataclass
class EnrichmentResult:
    ioc_value: str
    ioc_type: str
    vt_malicious: int = 0
    vt_total: int = 0
    abuse_confidence: int = 0
    shodan_ports: list = field(default_factory=list)
    misp_events: list = field(default_factory=list)
    confidence_score: int = 0

def enrich_ip(ip: str, vt_key: str, abuse_key: str, shodan_key: str) -> EnrichmentResult:
    result = EnrichmentResult(ip, "ip")

    # VirusTotal IP lookup
    vt_resp = requests.get(
        f"https://www.virustotal.com/api/v3/ip_addresses/{ip}",
        headers={"x-apikey": vt_key}
    )
    if vt_resp.status_code == 200:
        stats = vt_resp.json()["data"]["attributes"]["last_analysis_stats"]
        result.vt_malicious = stats.get("malicious", 0)
        result.vt_total = sum(stats.values())

    time.sleep(RATE_LIMIT_DELAY)

    # AbuseIPDB
    abuse_resp = requests.get(
        "https://api.abuseipdb.com/api/v2/check",
        headers={"Key": abuse_key, "Accept": "application/json"},
        params={"ipAddress": ip, "maxAgeInDays": 90}
    )
    if abuse_resp.status_code == 200:
        result.abuse_confidence = abuse_resp.json()["data"]["abuseConfidenceScore"]

    # Calculate composite confidence score
    result.confidence_score = min(
        (result.vt_malicious / max(result.vt_total, 1)) * 60 +
        (result.abuse_confidence / 100) * 40, 100
    )

    return result

def enrich_hash(sha256: str, vt_key: str) -> EnrichmentResult:
    result = EnrichmentResult(sha256, "sha256")
    vt_resp = requests.get(
        f"https://www.virustotal.com/api/v3/files/{sha256}",
        headers={"x-apikey": vt_key}
    )
    if vt_resp.status_code == 200:
        stats = vt_resp.json()["data"]["attributes"]["last_analysis_stats"]
        result.vt_malicious = stats.get("malicious", 0)
        result.vt_total = sum(stats.values())
        result.confidence_score = int((result.vt_malicious / max(result.vt_total, 1)) * 100)
    return result

Step 3: Build SOAR Playbook (Cortex XSOAR)

In Cortex XSOAR, create an enrichment playbook:

1. Trigger: Alert created in SIEM (via webhook or polling)
2. Extract IOCs: Use "Extract Indicators" task with regex patterns for IP, domain, URL, hash
3. Parallel enrichment: Fan-out to multiple enrichment tasks simultaneously
4. VT Enrichment: Call !vt-file-scan or !vt-ip-scan commands
5. AbuseIPDB check: Call !abuseipdb-check-ip command
6. MISP Lookup: Call !misp-search for cross-referencing
7. Score aggregation: Python transform task computing composite score
8. Conditional routing: If score ≥70 → High Priority queue; if 40–69 → Medium; <40 → Auto-close with note
9. Alert enrichment: Write enrichment results to alert context for analyst view

Step 4: Handle Rate Limiting and Failures

import time
from functools import wraps


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