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Non-Public Domain

It refers to a domain that operates with restricted accessibility, its HTTP/HTTPS services are either protected, limited to specific users, or intentionally unreachable from the public internet. Threat actors often configure such domains to prevent discovery by scanners and to only allow requests from whitelisted or infected hosts.

Analyst Q&A

What this signal answers

The questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.

What it detects01

What does 'Non-Public Domain' mean in SOC or web analysis?

It refers to a domain that operates with restricted accessibility, its HTTP/HTTPS services are either protected, limited to specific users, or intentionally unreachable from the public internet. Threat actors often configure such domains to prevent discovery by scanners and to only allow requests from whitelisted or infected hosts.

Why it matters02

Why are non-public domains considered suspicious?

Because legitimate web services are typically accessible over the public internet. Domains that block ordinary HTTP requests, return access errors, or only respond to authenticated clients may indicate malicious infrastructures designed for command-and-control (C2) or data exfiltration. However, some legitimate services such as private APIs or partner networks can show similar behavior.

Often paired with:alert_only
Evidence shape

What Non-Public Domain looks like in the response

A realistic shape of the entry the engine appends to the risk_signals array when this signal fires. Evidence keys are subgroup-default; per-signal overrides documented in the API reference.

json
{
  "slug": "unsuccessful_web_request",
  "name": "Non-Public Domain",
  "group": "http_crawling_history",
  "subgroup": "http_availability_stability",
  "direction": "malicious",
  "evidence": {
    "uptime_30d_pct": 99.4,
    "status_code_mode": 200,
    "intermittent_failures_30d": 2,
    "last_unreachable_days_ago": 14
  }
}
See in API reference
Siblings

Peers in HTTP Availability & Stability

4 other signals share the same subgroup. They detect related behaviors and often co-fire on the same IOC.

Inactive HTTP Service Detected (Base Domain)

It indicates that the base domain’s web service (HTTP/HTTPS) is no longer responding or has gone offline. This behavior …

Malicious
Long-lived HTTP Service Detected

This term refers to a web service (HTTP/HTTPS) that has been continuously active and reachable for a long duration witho…

SafeCore
Newly Active HTTP Service Detected

It indicates that the domain has recently started serving web content over HTTP or HTTPS after a long period of inactivi…

Malicious
Unstable or Intermittent HTTP Service Detected

It refers to a domain whose HTTP or HTTPS service repeatedly switches between being online and offline within short time…

Malicious

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