52.167.144.163📋 Copy

INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: 52.167.144.163

Classification: Legitimate Infrastructure / Low Risk

OVERVIEW

IP 52.167.144.163 is identified as a Microsoft Bing search bot (msnbot) operating within Microsoft Corporation's cloud infrastructure (ASN 8075). The IP presents a low risk profile with a risk score of 25 and no active threat indicators.

OWNERSHIP & NETWORK ROLE

• Organization: Microsoft Corporation
• Network Role: Bingbot crawler / CloudCompute infrastructure
• Infrastructure Type: Cloud-based hosting (not residential, not proxy, not VPN)
• Cloud Provider: Microsoft Azure/Windows Infrastructure
• Service Classification: Firewalled / No Services exposed

GEOLOCATION

• Country: United States (US)
• Region: Wisconsin (WI)
• City: Madison
• Note: Geographic validation shows some inconsistency (geoPlausible: false) with claimed coordinates at 36.6694°N, -78.3877°W (~6,553 km from claimed Madison location), suggesting geolocation data may be inferred from multiple sources rather than actual probe data.

THREAT ASSESSMENT

• Risk Score: 25 (Low Risk)
• Threat Indicators: None detected
• Blacklist Status: Clean (0 blacklists; listed on 1 DNSBL out of 8 total checks)
• Campaign Activity: No associated campaigns detected
• Known Attacker: No
• Spam Source: No
• Tor Exit Node: No

DNS & EMAIL REPUTATION

• Reverse DNS: msnbot-52-167-144-163.search.msn.com
• Forward Resolution: msn.com (confirmed)
• Email Authentication: SPF record present, DMARC present
• Fingerprint: No HTTP services detected (consistent with crawler behavior)

OBSERVATION HISTORY

Analysis of 20 historical observations indicates:

• Stable ownership with no changes detected
• No threat persistence (threatPersistenceDays: 0)
• Recent signals (June 2026) show consistent Microsoft infrastructure behavior
• Operator score: 0.3478 (labeled "Basic")
• No evidence of escalating or degrading threat posture

SUBNET NEIGHBORHOOD ANALYSIS

• Subnet: 52.167.144.163/24
• Total Siblings: 84 IPs
• Active Siblings: 23
• Abuse Density: 0 (no abuse observed in neighborhood)
• Risk Distribution: 0 high-risk, 77 medium-risk, 7 low-risk neighbors
• Threat Siblings: 16 (approximately 20% of active siblings show some threat indicators)
• Inherited Risk: 10 (minimal inherited risk from neighborhood)

RELATIONSHIP GRAPH

• DNS Associations: Multiple entries linking to msnbot-52-167-144-163.search.msn.com
• Network Relationships: Associated with MSFT (Microsoft) network
• Total Relationships: 34 identified entities

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

No defensive actions recommended. This IP represents legitimate Microsoft Bing search crawler activity:

• No firewall rules required
• No blocking or rate-limiting necessary
• Traffic should be allowed for normal web crawling operations

INTEL SUMMARY

52.167.144.163 is benign Microsoft infrastructure used for web indexing. The low risk score, verified Microsoft ownership, absence of threat indicators, and clean reputation across all threat feeds confirm this is normal search engine crawler traffic. No SOC action required.

This summary was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies. Verify critical details independently.