whatsapp-auth[.]icu

On 23 July 2026 the domain whatsapp-auth.icu was observed as part of a WhatsApp brand‑impersonation campaign. The domain was registered on 21 February 2026 through Gname.com Pte. Ltd., and its authoritative name servers are a.share-dns.com, a5.share-dns.com, b.share-dns.net, and b5.share-dns.net. DNS resolution points to the IPv4 address 192.163.167.170, which belongs to Antbox Networks Limited (AS138995) and is geolocated in Hong Kong. No TLS certificate was presented for the site, indicating that the service was operating without HTTPS. The only visible metadata is the page title “WhatsApp 安全检测中心”, which aligns with the reported scam type of social‑media phishing targeting the WhatsApp brand.

Reputation services have uniformly rated the infrastructure as highly malicious. Gridinsoft assigned a trust score of 0 out of 100. AlienVault OTX lists the domain in a single threat‑intelligence pulse. VirusTotal scans returned 19 positive detections out of 93 antiviruses, reinforcing the malicious classification. The domain is currently listed on at least one security blocklist and was actively blocked by the PhishDestroy sinkhole.

The risk level is recorded as elevated, and the operational status at the time of reporting is offline. Given the convergence of registrar, DNS, and hosting indicators, analysts should add whatsapp-auth.icu to deny‑list filters at network perimeter and endpoint layers. Monitoring for the IP address 192.163.167.170 and any future registrations that reuse the same name‑server set or ASN may reveal additional drop sites. Because the site does not employ TLS, any attempt to recover content via HTTP will fail, but the absence of a certificate also simplifies detection through TLS‑inspection policies. Defenders are advised to treat any inbound traffic to this domain as malicious, to audit logs for prior connections, and to consider broader campaigns that reference the same page title or target the WhatsApp brand.