It means that one or more commercial security vendors — including antivirus engines, sandboxes, or threat intelligence providers — have classified or reported the domain as malicious. The number of vendors reporting it directly reflects the confidence level of the detection.
Three questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.
It means that one or more commercial security vendors — including antivirus engines, sandboxes, or threat intelligence providers — have classified or reported the domain as malicious. The number of vendors reporting it directly reflects the confidence level of the detection.
A domain flagged by a limited number of vendors (1–2) usually represents an early or low-confidence detection. When several (3–5) or numerous (6+) vendors report the same domain, it indicates stronger validation and a high likelihood of confirmed malicious activity.
It shows that the domain appeared in vendor reports in the past but is no longer actively flagged. Such domains may have been cleaned, repurposed, or expired, yet their historical association still contributes to elevated risk scoring in threat intelligence analysis.
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.
{
"slug": "security_vendors_malware",
"name": "Flagged by Limited Security Vendors",
"group": "threat_intelligence_feed",
"subgroup": "malware_association",
"direction": "malicious",
"evidence": {
"sources_referencing": 12,
"malware_families": [
"emotet",
"qakbot"
],
"first_reference_days_ago": 11,
"confidence": 0.91
}
}1 other signal shares the same subgroup. They detect related behaviors and often co-fire on the same IOC.
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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