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Pivot around IP 193.109.68.87 (from ns1.carbon2u.com) - potential Sofacy

Low
Published: Tue Jun 28 2016 (06/28/2016, 00:00:00 UTC)
Source: CIRCL
Vendor/Project: tlp
Product: green

Description

Pivot around IP 193.109.68.87 (from ns1.carbon2u.com) - potential Sofacy

AI-Powered Analysis

AILast updated: 07/02/2025, 20:39:43 UTC

Technical Analysis

The provided information describes a potential threat involving the IP address 193.109.68.87, associated with the domain ns1.carbon2u.com, which is suspected to be linked to the Sofacy threat actor. Sofacy, also known as APT28 or Fancy Bear, is a well-known advanced persistent threat group attributed to Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage activities. The mention of "pivot around IP" suggests that this IP address may be used as a pivot point or infrastructure node in a larger attack or reconnaissance campaign. However, the data lacks specific technical details such as attack vectors, exploited vulnerabilities, malware signatures, or targeted systems. The threat type is marked as "unknown," and no affected products or versions are listed. The severity is rated low, and no known exploits in the wild have been reported. The source is CIRCL (Computer Incident Response Center Luxembourg), and the threat level and analysis scores are relatively low (4 and 2 respectively), indicating limited confidence or impact. Overall, this appears to be an intelligence indicator or early warning about potential Sofacy activity involving this IP address rather than a confirmed active exploit or vulnerability. The lack of concrete technical details limits the ability to fully characterize the threat or its mechanisms.

Potential Impact

For European organizations, the potential impact of this threat is currently minimal due to the low severity rating and absence of known exploits. However, if the IP address is indeed part of Sofacy's infrastructure, it could be used for reconnaissance, command and control, or as a pivot point to launch targeted cyber espionage campaigns against governmental, defense, or critical infrastructure entities. European organizations in sectors such as defense, government, energy, and telecommunications could be at risk if this infrastructure is leveraged in future attacks. The indirect impact includes the need for increased monitoring and threat intelligence efforts to detect any malicious activity associated with this IP or related domains. Since no active exploitation is reported, the immediate operational impact is low, but the strategic risk remains due to the threat actor's known capabilities and objectives.

Mitigation Recommendations

European organizations should incorporate this IP address (193.109.68.87) and the domain ns1.carbon2u.com into their threat intelligence feeds and network monitoring tools to detect any inbound or outbound traffic involving these indicators. Network defenders should implement strict egress filtering and monitor DNS queries for suspicious domains. Employing anomaly detection systems to identify unusual pivoting or lateral movement patterns can help detect early stages of compromise. Organizations should ensure that endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions are updated to identify Sofacy-related tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). Sharing threat intelligence with national CERTs and relevant information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs) can enhance collective defense. Since no specific vulnerabilities are identified, patch management remains important but not directly related to this threat. Finally, user awareness training focused on spear-phishing and social engineering, common Sofacy attack vectors, should be maintained.

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Technical Details

Threat Level
4
Analysis
2
Original Timestamp
1467481137

Threat ID: 682acdbdbbaf20d303f0b704

Added to database: 5/19/2025, 6:20:45 AM

Last enriched: 7/2/2025, 8:39:43 PM

Last updated: 7/26/2025, 5:14:53 AM

Views: 7

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