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Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity

It indicates that the domain or web page automatically reloads itself after a certain interval without user interaction. This behavior can generate repeated background connections, maintain user sessions artificially, or trigger redirections after multiple refresh cycles.

Analyst Q&A

What this signal answers

The questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.

What it detects01

What does 'Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity' mean?

It indicates that the domain or web page automatically reloads itself after a certain interval without user interaction. This behavior can generate repeated background connections, maintain user sessions artificially, or trigger redirections after multiple refresh cycles.

Why it matters02

Why is auto-refresh behavior considered suspicious?

Attackers often use auto-refresh mechanisms to delay malicious activity, execute staged payloads, or redirect users to different domains after a waiting period. This makes detection harder, as the initial page load may appear benign while later refreshes deliver harmful content or scripts.

How analysts use it03

Can auto-refresh ever be legitimate?

Yes. News, stock, or dashboard sites may use timed refreshes to update content. However, in SOC and CTI analysis, persistent auto-refresh behavior, especially followed by redirects or script injections, should be treated as a potential indicator of compromise (IoC).

Often paired with:alert_only
Evidence shape

What Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity 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": "auto_page_refresh",
  "name": "Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity",
  "group": "http_crawling_history",
  "subgroup": "web_behavior_structure",
  "direction": "malicious",
  "evidence": {
    "url_shortener_chain": false,
    "auto_refresh_seconds": null,
    "direct_ip_link": false,
    "browser_interaction_required": true
  }
}
See in API reference
Siblings

Peers in Web Behavior & Structure

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

Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity (HTTP Header)

It indicates that the web server instructs the browser to reload the page automatically through an HTTP Refresh response…

Malicious
Injected Iframe

An injected iframe refers to an HTML frame embedded within a web page that loads content from an external or malicious d…

MaliciousCore
Malicious Redirect Behavior

It refers to the automatic forwarding of a user or system request from one domain to another destination. Redirects can …

MaliciousCore
Direct Connection to an IP Address

It refers to the action of accessing a resource using a direct IP address instead of a domain name. Threat actors often …

Malicious
Show 5 more in Web Behavior & Structure
In the wild

See Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity fire on real IOCs

The Verdict Gallery is a curated stream of real verdicts. Filter by this signal to see exactly which IOCs it caught, what other signals fired alongside it, and what the engine recommended.

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Pre-filtered to Suspicious Auto Page Refresh Activity. See real IOCs this signal caught and the verdicts the engine returned.
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