Archiving and Utilities Sites
A comprehensive definition of Archiving and Utilities sites in the context of cybersecurity involves understanding them as platforms or tools that manage, store, organize, or process data, and which can be used by both legitimate users for their intended purpose and by threat actors for malicious activities.
These sites present a cybersecurity risk primarily because they can be abused to hide the true nature of malicious content, host command-and-control (C2) communications, stage stolen data, or facilitate phishing and social engineering campaigns.
Data/Archive Sites
Data/Archive sites are platforms fundamentally designed for long-term data retention, organized storage, or content sharing. In cybersecurity, these sites are often used by attackers to:
Stage Stolen Data: Adversaries compress and upload exfiltrated data (like internal documents or credentials) to these sites before retrieving it, making the transfer appear as benign web traffic.
Host Malicious Payloads/Code: Files containing malware, configuration data, or attack scripting components can be stored for later download by infected systems.
Command-and-Control (C2) Infrastructure: In some cases, attackers may use legitimate features (such as collaboration notes or public posts) to issue commands to compromised internal systems (e.g., as part of a "living off the land" technique).
Examples:
Pastebin: A text-sharing service often used to drop malicious code snippets, exploit details, configuration files, or stolen credentials.
Trello: A project management tool that can be used to host C2 instructions, stage files, or serve as a communication channel by manipulating project boards and cards.
change.org: A petition platform that, while having a different primary purpose, could be used to host or link to malicious content in a post or comment.
itemfix.cofm (likely a variant or defunct site): If a file-sharing or archiving function exists, it could be used for staging data or malware.
Shortening & Linking Sites
Shortening & Linking services replace long, descriptive URLs with shorter ones, often for convenience or to track click-through rates. In cybersecurity, they are a significant vector for obfuscation and phishing.
The core risk is that the shortened link masks the true destination, making it difficult for a user to determine whether they are being redirected to a phishing page, a malware-hosting site, or a legitimate resource.
Examples:
Bit.ly: A primary URL shortening service often used in phishing emails, social media scams, or malicious advertisements to mask the final destination, bypass simple filtering, and track victim clicks.
beacons.ai, linktr.ee, lnk.bio, djskt.lnk.to: These are primarily "link-in-bio" or landing page services that aggregate multiple links. A malicious actor could use a single, trusted-looking link (the shortener/aggregator link) to lead a victim to a page containing multiple fraudulent or malicious links.
Other Utilities Sites
The "Other" category includes a diverse range of Utilities sites, which encompasses forums, developer platforms, social networks, and specialized tools. These are cyber-risky because they represent a vast "safe harbor" of trusted or hard-to-filter domains for various adversarial techniques.
Primary Risks:
Malware Distribution/Staging: Platforms that allow file uploads or custom content (e.g., CMS sites like WordPress or Weebly, or forums like forums.linuxmint.com) can be compromised or used to host payloads.
Phishing/Social Engineering: Attackers use the legitimacy of trusted sites (e.g., Udemy, MoneySavingExpert, Gravatar profiles) to host phishing pages or build deceptive profiles/posts.
C2/Exfiltration: Legitimate APIs (rapidapi.com, YandexCollections API) or messaging/collaboration platforms (Slack, Trello again) can be used as a covert channel for C2 communications or data exfiltration, blending in with regular traffic.
Credibility & Information Gathering: Threat groups use forums (forums.destructoid.com, 3ddd), developer sites (AdvancedCustomFields), and specialized tools (hiveos.farm, IFTTT) to share information, trade exploits, or find targets. Social platforms (steemit, minds.com) can be used for influence operations and disinformation.
Examples of Utility Site Risk:
Slack: A collaboration tool that can be used to host files (malware staging) or for covert C2 by sending commands as seemingly harmless messages to a private channel.
WordPress / Wikidot / {username}.tilda.ws: These content management and hosting platforms can be compromised or used to host phishing pages, malicious blogs, or download servers.
nightbot: A moderation utility for live streams that, if compromised, could be used to inject malicious links into popular chat channels.
Aptoide: A third-party app store that could be used to distribute malicious or repackaged apps that bypass official app store security checks.
Would you like a summary of the security practices an organization should implement to defend against threats from these Archiving and Utilities sites?
ThreatNG, an all-in-one external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings solution, provides comprehensive, unauthenticated, outside-in capabilities to manage the risks posed by Archiving and Utilities sites. Its approach is to discover, assess, and continuously monitor the abuse of these platforms for malicious purposes, effectively transforming chaotic manual searching into decisive security insight.
External Discovery and Monitoring of Utilities
ThreatNG’s External Discovery process performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery , acting as an attacker would. It includes Continuous Monitoring to track the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings of all organizations.
Archived Web Pages: ThreatNG can discover content archived on an organization's online presence, including sensitive items such as API keys, documents, emails, admin pages, and usernames, across HTML, JSON, and other file types. The discovery of these files, which may be hosted on or linked from archiving sites, reveals exposure.
Technology Stack: The solution identifies the technologies an organization uses, including utilities, content management systems (CMSs), project management tools, and developer platforms. For example, detecting WordPress or Trello use helps focus the assessment on known risk areas associated with those utilities.
External Assessment for Archiving and Utility Site Risks
ThreatNG performs various External Assessments that directly address the abuse of Archiving and Utilities sites, particularly for data leaks and credential exposure:
Data Leak Susceptibility: This score is crucial for archiving sites. It is derived from factors like Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials) and Cloud and SaaS Exposure. If an archiving or file-sharing utility were misconfigured, the resulting exposure would increase this score. For instance, if an organization's credentials for a SaaS collaboration utility like Slack or Trello are found on the Dark Web, it directly impacts this score.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates how exposed an organization’s mobile apps are by discovering their presence in marketplaces (like Aptoide ) and, more importantly, by investigating their contents for exposed Access Credentials and Security Credentials. This is vital, since mobile apps may use hardcoded credentials for other utilities or APIs (e.g., rapidapi.com). For example, the discovery of a GitHub Access Token or a Stripe API Key within a mobile app downloaded from an app store signals a major secret leak that an attacker could use to pivot into other systems.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This score factors in Code Secret Exposure, which discovers code repositories and their exposure levels, and investigates their contents for sensitive data. If developers use sites like GitHub or Pastebin for code sharing, the exposure of credentials, SSH keys, or configuration files (such as an NPM configuration file or a Docker configuration file) would be a critical finding that would increase this score.
Investigation Modules and Username Exposure
ThreatNG's Investigation Modules facilitate detailed investigation and risk identification.
Social Media Investigation Module - Username Exposure
The Username Exposure module is highly relevant for investigating threats hosted or created on the broad range of Utilities sites. It performs a Passive Reconnaissance scan to determine if a specific username is available or taken across a wide range of social media and high-risk forums.
For the specified Archiving and Utilities sites, the module checks explicitly for username presence on:
Shortening & Linking: It doesn't explicitly list these, but related social sites are covered.
Data/Archive: It checks the general social media and high-risk forums categories.
Other Utilities: The module checks a large number of these sites.
Developer Forums (e.g., community.adobe.com) and Code & Repository sites (e.g., GitHub, BitBucket) are checked, covering platforms like WordPress and developer utilities.
Creative & Portfolio sites (e.g., 3ddd) are scanned.
Writing & Publishing sites are scanned, which could include services like Steemit or Minds.com if categorized there.
General Forums are checked, including forums.linuxmint.com.
By identifying a compromised or malicious username associated with an organization across these utilities, ThreatNG can proactively mitigate the risk of targeted social engineering (spear phishing) against employees or executives.
Intelligence Repositories and Reporting
Intelligence Repositories
ThreatNG uses continuously updated intelligence repositories, branded as DarCache, to enrich its assessments related to Utilities and Archiving threats:
DarCache Dark Web and DarCache Rupture (Compromised Credentials): These track mentions of organizations and associated compromised credentials. A threat actor using a dark web forum (a utility site) to sell credentials for an organization's Slack or Trello instance would be detected here.
DarCache Vulnerability (KEV, EPSS, PoC Exploits): This repository provides context on vulnerabilities, including those actively exploited in the wild (KEV) and verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits. This is critical for patching commonly used utilities like WordPress or Slack if a critical vulnerability is found.
Reporting
ThreatNG provides Reporting in various formats, including Prioritized (High, Medium, Low) and Technical.
If a link from Bit.ly is identified as a phishing campaign (BEC & Phishing Susceptibility) or a file on Pastebin is detected as a code secret exposure, this is translated into actionable findings in the reports.
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping automatically correlates raw findings (like leaked credentials or open ports) with specific adversary techniques. For example, the discovery of leaked credentials on Pastebin would be mapped to the initial access or persistence stages of the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
ThreatNG with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's unauthenticated, outside-in view of the attack surface can be highly effective when working with complementary security solutions:
Integration with a SIEM/XDR Solution: ThreatNG identifies a critical vulnerability in an organization's public-facing WordPress blog (a high-risk utility) and determines it is actively exploited in the wild via DarCache KEV. This finding and its MITRE ATT&CK mapping could be sent to a complementary Security Information and Event Management (SIEM/XDR) solution (such as Splunk or Microsoft Defender XDR). The complementary solution can then trigger immediate internal logging and correlation across endpoints and network data for any exploitation attempts targeting the vulnerable WordPress instance.
Integration with an Email & Phishing Security Gateway: ThreatNG's BEC & Phishing Susceptibility module discovers several domain permutations (typosquatting domains) of the organization's primary domain that use Bit.ly links in the mail records. This intelligence is shared with a complementary Email & Phishing Security solution (Proofpoint or Mimecast ). The email gateway can then immediately block all incoming and outgoing emails containing that specific Bit.ly short link or any link associated with the newly discovered fraudulent domains, preemptively stopping a phishing attack.
