Features 3 min read

Advanced Search

Use advanced search to find specific threats, articles, entities, and IOCs across the entire ThreatCluster database.

ThreatCluster indexes thousands of cybersecurity articles daily. Advanced Search lets you pinpoint exactly the threats, entities, and IOCs you care about.

The search bar in the top navbar is the fastest way to find something. Start typing and results appear in a dropdown grouped by clusters, articles, and entities. Click any result to jump straight to it.

Cluster AI Mode

Click the sparkle icon in the search bar to toggle Cluster AI mode. Instead of keyword matching, you can ask natural language questions:

  • "What ransomware groups targeted healthcare in the last month?"
  • "Show me clusters related to zero-day exploits in Microsoft Exchange"

Cluster AI interprets your question, searches across clusters and entities, and returns relevant results with a summary.

Note: AI search is available on Researcher tier and above.

Advanced Search Page

Navigate to /search for full-page search with granular controls. The Advanced Search page gives you:

  • A larger results area with tabbed views
  • Filter panels that persist as you refine your query
  • The ability to combine multiple filters in a single search

Filtering Results

Use the filter panel on the Advanced Search page to narrow results by:

  • Entity type -- Focus on threat actors, malware families, CVEs, organizations, or other entity categories.
  • Date range -- Restrict results to a specific time window (last 24 hours, last 7 days, custom range).
  • Threat score -- Filter by minimum threat score to surface only high-severity clusters.
  • Category -- Limit results to specific threat categories such as ransomware, phishing, data breach, or vulnerability disclosure.

Filters stack together, so you can search for "Cobalt Strike" filtered to threat score 70+ in the last 30 days.

Search Operators

Refine keyword searches with operators:

Operator Example What it does
Quotes "BlackCat ransomware" Exact phrase match
Field prefix title:ransomware Search within cluster titles only
Field prefix source:BleepingComputer Filter by source name
Field prefix entity:Lazarus Search within extracted entities
Field prefix content:Cobalt Strike Search within article body text

Searching for IOCs

ThreatCluster extracts indicators of compromise from articles automatically. You can search for:

  • IP addresses -- e.g., ip:192.168.1.1 or just paste the IP directly
  • Domains -- e.g., domain:malicious-site.com
  • File hashes -- SHA-256, SHA-1, or MD5 hashes. Use hash: prefix or paste the hash directly.

When an IOC matches, you see every cluster and article where it appeared, giving you immediate context on how the indicator relates to broader campaigns.

Search Results Tabs

Results on the Advanced Search page are organized into three tabs:

  • Clusters -- Grouped threat intelligence clusters with threat scores, entity counts, and article counts. This is usually the best starting point.
  • Articles -- Individual articles matching your query, with source, date, and the cluster they belong to.
  • Entities -- Extracted entities (threat actors, malware, CVEs, etc.) that match your search terms. Click an entity to see its full profile page.

Creating Alerts from Searches

If you find yourself running the same search regularly, consider setting up an Alert Rule with the same keywords and filters. Alert rules automatically notify you when new clusters match your criteria.

Go to Settings > Alert Rules to create one, or see the Alert Rules guide for details.

Note: Alert rules are available on Researcher tier and above.