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Reputation Decay Domain

It indicates that the domain’s reputation, visibility, and traffic are steadily declining over time. This decay often precedes abandonment or repurposing, making the domain a common target for malicious reuse or reputation hijacking.

Analyst Q&A

What this signal answers

The questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.

What it detects01

What does 'Reputation Decay Domain' mean in SOC analysis?

It indicates that the domain’s reputation, visibility, and traffic are steadily declining over time. This decay often precedes abandonment or repurposing, making the domain a common target for malicious reuse or reputation hijacking.

Why it matters02

Why is reputation decay considered a potential threat indicator?

Because attackers often acquire or reactivate domains with decaying reputation to exploit their remaining trust signals. These domains may have once been legitimate, allowing threat actors to evade security filters that rely on historical reputation data.

How analysts use it03

How should analysts respond when detecting a Reputation Decay Domain?

Analysts should monitor for ownership changes, DNS record modifications, or newly issued SSL certificates. Combined with declining traffic, such changes often signal that the domain is being prepared for malicious reuse.

Often paired with:alert_only
Evidence shape

What Reputation Decay 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": "popularity_trend_decrease",
  "name": "Reputation Decay Domain",
  "group": "popularity_and_backlink",
  "subgroup": "popularity_trend",
  "direction": "malicious",
  "evidence": {
    "trend_30d": "decrease",
    "rank_delta_30d": -120000,
    "inflection_detected": true,
    "inflection_days_ago": 6
  }
}
See in API reference
Siblings

Peers in Popularity Trend

1 other signal shares the same subgroup. They detect related behaviors and often co-fire on the same IOC.

Gradual Popularity Growth Domain

It reflects a consistent and organic increase in user visits, backlinks, and visibility over time. Such growth commonly …

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