Detection: Get Outbound Emails to Hidden Cobra Threat Actors

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: As of Splunk Enterprise Security version 8.0, Splunk Enterprise Security no longer supports Investigations. As such, all Investigations have been deprecated in ES Content Update.

Removed in version: 5.2.0

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: 80bac352-e089-46b9-a6a4-8a8467d4d8cf Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: Investigation Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This search returns the information of the users that sent emails to the accounts controlled by the Hidden Cobra Threat Actors: specifically to misswang8107@gmail.com, and from redhat@gmail.com.

Search

1
2| from datamodel Email.All_Email 
3| search recipient=misswang8107@gmail.com OR src_user=redhat@gmail.com 
4| stats count earliest(_time) as firstTime, latest(_time) as lastTime values(dest) values(src) by src_user recipient 
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

Data Source

No data sources specified for this detection.

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`N/A`
Earliest Time	`N/A`
Latest Time	`N/A`
Schedule Window	`N/A`
Creates Finding (Notable)	No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

Implementation

To successfully implement this search you must ingest your email logs or capture unencrypted email communications within network traffic, and populate the Email data model.

Known False Positives

Associated Analytic Story

Hidden Cobra Malware

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`
Integration	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub |

Version: 1