MISP for Cyber Threat Intelligence: Installation, Integration, and Automation. [Part 1]

Intro

Malware Information Sharing Platform (MISP) is an open-source threat intelligence (TI) platform that helps organizations collect, store, and share information about malwares, threats, and vulnerabilities in a structured way. In cyber threat intelligence (CTI), MISP serves as a central hub for Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) like malicious IPs, domains, file hashes, and attack signatures—making them actionable across different security tools and teams.

If you are working as Tactical CTI .. MISP is your friend, if your organisation doesn’t have it.. yelp, Huston we have a problem.

Why use MISP? Because threat actors (TAs) often reuse techniques and indicators, sharing TI helps defenders collaborate and protect one another. MISP enables Security Operations Center (SOC) teams, threat hunters, and researchers to pool knowledge effectively. It standardizes how threat data is formatted and shared, making it easier to search, correlate, and enrich indicators from multiple sources. MISP also facilitates automatic correlation of related events and attributes, quickly revealing hidden relationships among various incidents.. which is nice insert borat meme here

In this post, we will explore:

• The pros and cons of using MISP.
• Step-by-step Docker-based installation instructions.
• Key use cases for MISP in cybersecurity operations.
• And how to leverage integration and automation to maximize MISP’s benefits.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll dive into OpenCTI and how it complements MISP for advanced TI management.

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Pros and Cons of Using MISP

Like any platform, MISP has its strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a quick overview:

Pros

1. Community-Driven Intelligence
   MISP’s large user community includes open sharing groups, industry ISACs, and government CERTs. This means your organization can access and contribute to a robust pool of IOCs and contextual data.

2. Open-Source and Free
   MISP is open-source, so there’s no licensing cost. You can host and modify it on-premises, integrate it into existing workflows, and benefit from community-driven improvements without vendor lock-in.

3. Structured Data Format
   MISP supports standards like STIX, OpenIOC, and custom object templates. It stores IOCs as attributes within events, automatically correlating and linking related events that share those attributes.

4. Automation and Integration
   MISP has a REST API and a Python library (PyMISP) for scripting tasks—such as bulk importing or exporting IOCs. You can seamlessly connect MISP to other security tools like SIEMs, IDS/IPS, and EDR platforms.

Cons

1. Initial Learning Curve
   Although MISP provides install scripts and documentation, new users might find the platform’s concept of events, attributes, and taxonomies slightly complex at first (don’t worry I was there as well).

2. Maintenance Overhead
   MISP requires routine updates, database management, and performance tuning for large instances.

3. Data Quality and Noise
   Because MISP often ingests data from multiple feeds and contributors, some IOCs might be low-confidence or outdated. It’s crucial to establish filtering and validation processes to avoid false positives.

4. Integration Complexity
   While MISP supports many integrations, some require custom scripts or connectors. This can be time-intensive depending on your existing security stack.

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Docker-Based Installation Guide

Deploying MISP via Docker simplifies the setup by bundling the core application, database, and dependencies into containers. Below is a step-by-step guide to help you get started.

Prerequisites

• Docker Engine and Docker Compose installed on a Linux system (e.g., Ubuntu 22.04).
• Adequate resources (at least a few GB of RAM and enough disk space for the database).
• Available TCP ports 80/443 if you plan to access MISP externally.

Installation Steps

1. Clone the MISP Docker Repository

   git clone https://github.com/MISP/misp-docker.git
   cd misp-docker
   

2. Set Up Enviroment Variables Inside the cloned folder, copy the template.env to .env

    cp template.env .env
   

   Edit the .env file to specify value like MISP_BASEURL (e.g., https://), MySQL credentials, and other custom settings as needed.

3. Pull and Run Container

    docker compose pull
    docker compose up -d
   

   This command will download the MISP images and start the containers (web server, database, etc.) in detached mode.

4. Access the Web Interface
   • Open your browser and go to https://<server-ip> (or localhost if local).
   • Bypass any self-signed certificate warning (for testing).
   • Log in with the default credentials (admin@admin.test / admin) and change the password immediately.
5. Basic Configuration Use the MISP web interface (Administration -> Server Settings) to configure your organization name, enable or disable default feeds, and manage accounts.

Troubleshooting

• Version Incompatability
  • Ensure that you have an up-to-date Docker and Docker compose.
• Port Conflicts
  • Confirm that ports 80/443 are not used by other services.
• Logs
  • Use docker compose logs <service> (e.g., misp, db) to see container logs for errors

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MISP Use Cases in Cybersec Operations

Once your MISP instance is running, you can create / edit / make various security workflows as:

1. TI Collection and Enrichment
   • Ingest IOCs from multiple sources (e.g., open-source feeds, comercial intel).
   • Enrich existing IOCs with contextual information (WHOIS, VirusTotal, and so on..).
   • Automate lookups with MISP modules for quick pivoting and correlation.
2. Sharing TI IOCs
   • Collaboration in industry e.g., ISACs, CERTs to exchange data.
   • Built-in synchronization features to push/pull events across trusted communities.
   • Control data visibility with granular sharing groups and distribution settings.
3. Automation and Incident Response
   • MISP REST API or PyMISP to automate indicator imports / exports (to be honest, this is best thing there for me, as I’m a bit lazy to do everything manualy).
   • SIEMs, IDS/IPS, and EDR alerts on malicious IOCs in real time.
   • Incident investigations by correlating attributes accros historical events (much data, much wow).
4. Integration with Other tools
   • TheHive, Splunk and other tools offers direct or community-driven MISP connectors.
   • Easy to enrich and pivot between MISP and other IR/case managment solutions.

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Integration and Automation Possibilities

MISP API and PyMISP

MISP has a RESTful API. With PyMISP (which is Python wrapper) you can…

• Bulk add new IOCs from external feeds or CSVs.
• Search and filter for specific threat attributes.
• Automate correlation tasks and customs scripts (which I love the most).

Simple PyMISP Example

from pymisp import PyMISP

misp_url = "https://<server-ip>"
misp_key = "key"
misp = PyMISP(misp_url, misp_key, ssl=False)


# Last 24 hour events
recent_events = misp.search(controller="events", last="24h")
for event in recent_events:
    evt = event.get("Event")
    print(f"Found event: [{evt['id']}] {evt['info']}")


# Adding new MISP event
new_event = misp.add_event({"info": "New TI", "distribution": 0})
if new_event:
    event_id = new_event["Event"]["id"]
    misp.add_attribute(event_id, {"type": "domain", "value": "malicious.example.com"})
    print(f"Created event {event_id} with a new domain attribute.")

MIntegration with Other Tools and Platforms

• TheHive Well TheHive I would say some what a popular IR and case managment platform which can be easily integrated to MISP.

• OpenCTI Stay tuned for Part 2. But overall another open-source CTI platform which complements MISP for deeper Strategic TI.

• Siem and SOAR Even tho I’m not Engineer, but what I can say, that it’s not that hard to automate the flow of IOCs from MISP into SIEM or response orechstrations (IMHO).

• Elasticsearch/ELK Exporting MISP data to Elasticsearch for advanced correlation and visualization is kinda nice.

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General Conclusion

Well If you don’t have MISP, you are cooked.

Nah just joking, overall MISP stands out as a TI sharing and managment tool. It’s open-source, has strong community, easy integration options which makes it a go-to solution for both beginner and seasoned CTI / SOC ppl. Docker-based deployment I would say lowers the barrier to entry, allows easily to set up, load and go with working instance quickly.

Key Take Aways

• MISP helps with TI data collection and sharing.
• Automation via its API and integrations saves analysts time and improves collaboration.
• A well-maintained MISP instance becomes the intel backbone of a SOC / CTI / CERT.

What’s next?

• Stay tuned for [Part 2], where we’ll integrate MISP with OpenCTI and discuss how each platform complements the other for a seamless, end-to-end TI workflow.

ByeBye