Edit

Share via

Investigate an IP address associated with a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alert

  • Article

Applies to:

Want to experience Defender for Endpoint? Sign up for a free trial.

Examine possible communication between your devices and external internet protocol (IP) addresses.

Identifying all devices in the organization that communicated with a suspected or known malicious IP address, such as Command and Control (C2) servers, helps determine the potential scope of breach, associated files, and infected devices.

You can find information from the following sections in the IP address view:

  • IP geo information
  • Alerts related to this IP
  • IP in organization observations
  • Prevalence in organization

IP geo information

In the left pane, the page provides IP details (if available).

  • Organization (ISP)
  • ASN
  • Country
  • State
  • City
  • Carrier
  • Latitude
  • Longitude
  • Postal code

The Alerts related to this IP section provides a list of alerts that are associated with the IP.

IP observed in organization

The IP observed in organization section provides a list of devices that have a connection with this IP and the last event details for each device (the list is limited to 100 devices).

Prevalence

The Prevalence section displays how many devices have connected to this IP address, and when the IP was first and last seen. You can filter the results of this section by time period; the default period is 30 days.

Investigate an external IP:

  1. Enter the IP address in the Search field.
  2. Select the IP suggestion box and open the IP side panel.
  3. Select Enter.

Details about the IP address are displayed, including: registration details (if available), prevalence of devices in the organization that communicated with this IP Address (during selectable time period), and the devices in the organization that were observed communicating with this IP address.

Note

Search results will only be returned for IP addresses observed in communication with devices in the organization.

Use the search filters to define the search criteria. You can also use the timeline search box to filter the displayed results of all devices in the organization observed communicating with the IP address, the file associated with the communication and the last date observed.

Clicking any of the device names will take you to that device's view, where you can continue to investigate reported alerts, behaviors, and events.

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Tech Community.