Summary

Embark on a comprehensive journey into security incident reporting with Hack The Box Academy. This module equips learners with the skills to accurately identify, categorize, and document security incidents, emphasizing real-world applications and best practices.

Key Takeaways:

Explore the art of identifying and classifying security incidents.
Understand the systematic process of incident documentation.
Perfect communication strategies during incidents.
Dive into the critical components of a detailed incident report.
Analyze a real-world incident report following best practices.

This module is broken into sections with accompanying questions to practice the topics we cover.

You can start and stop the module anytime and pick up where you left off. There is no time limit or "grading," but you must complete all of the questions to receive the maximum number of cubes and have this module marked as complete in any paths you have chosen.

The module is classified as "easy" and assumes basic knowledge of how Windows operate and common attack principles.

A firm grasp of the following modules can be considered prerequisites for successful completion of this module:

Incident Handling Process
Security Monitoring & SIEM Fundamentals

Introduction to Security Incident Reporting

In today's landscape, the question isn't whether a security incident will transpire, but rather when it will occur. Enterprises, governmental bodies, and individual users have grown exceedingly dependent on technology, which serves as the cornerstone for the vast majority of our activities.

While this technological advancement has augmented operational efficiency, revenue generation, and output, it has concomitantly escalated the associated risks. These technological platforms have become fertile grounds for malevolent actors, sponsored by both state and non-state entities. A meticulously designed and streamlined incident reporting mechanism is pivotal for any organization's preparedness to counter these emerging threats effectively.

Security incident reporting serves as a conduit between the identification and remediation of threats. It facilitates the archival of past incidents, thereby providing an invaluable repository for lessons learned from previous mistakes. This repository can be seamlessly integrated into a broader strategy for preempting and mitigating future threats. Given the perpetually evolving threat landscape, a comprehensive and consistent incident reporting framework is indispensable for ensuring that organizations and their workforce are optimally prepared for any contingencies.

Beyond merely reacting to threats, an efficacious reporting protocol also fulfills other internal organizational imperatives. Whether it's legal departments ensuring regulatory compliance, executive management assessing risk profiles, or CFOs evaluating financial repercussions, a well-structured incident report serves as a clarifying instrument for all stakeholders.

Effective incident reporting should strike a balance between granularity and accessibility, making it comprehensible to both technically savvy and non-technical audiences. This module's objective is to refine your grasp of the nuances involved in proficient incident reporting.

Incident Identification and Categorisation

Navigating the labyrinthine array of cybersecurity threats that could potentially impact you or your organization necessitates a methodical approach to identifying and classifying security incidents. This enables the rapid allocation of resources and expedites threat mitigation. Essentially, the cornerstone of an initial successful response to an incident lies in the capability to promptly identify and categorize the threat.

Identifying Security Incidents

Security incidents can emanate from a diverse array of sources and often manifest as detections, anomalies, or deviations from established baselines. There are primarily three key sources for incident identification:

Source	Description
Security Systems/Tooling in Place	There is a wide variety of security systems and tools likely in place within your organization. Some excellent sources for identification include IDS/IPS, EDR/XDR, SIEM tools, or even basic anti-virus alerts and NetFlow data.
Human Observations	Users may notice and report suspicious activities, unusual emails, or systems behaving abnormally.
Third Party Notifications	Partners, vendors, or even customers might inform organizations about any vulnerabilities or breaches they are experiencing.

Categorising Security Incidents

Upon identification of an incident, it is imperative to categorize it to facilitate the prioritization and allocation of resources for an effective response. This categorization also aids in comprehending the nature of the incident, thereby informing subsequent briefings to stakeholders.

Examples of Incident Types:

Malware: Malicious software encompassing viruses, worms, and ransomware.
Phishing: Fraudulent endeavors to exfiltrate sensitive information, predominantly via email.
DDoS Attacks: Deliberate attempts to inundate a system or network, thereby disrupting its regular functionality.
Unauthorised Access: Incidents where unauthorized entities gain access to systems or data repositories.
Data Leakage: Inadvertent exposure of confidential data, both within and outside the organizational perimeter.
Physical Breach: Unauthorized physical access to secure locations.

Incident Severity Levels:

Critical (P1): Imminent threats that jeopardize core business functionalities or sensitive data, necessitating immediate intervention.
High (P2): Latent threats to business operations that, while not immediately detrimental, are of elevated priority.
Medium (P3): Incidents that, although not posing an immediate threat to business operations, warrant timely attention.
Low (P4): Trivial incidents or routine anomalies that can be managed within standard operational workflows.

It's crucial to recognize that incidents frequently straddle multiple categories and can dynamically shift in both category and severity as additional intelligence is garnered during the analysis phase. The fluid nature of these threats mandates a flexible yet structured approach to both identification and categorization.

Conclusion

In summary, adept identification and categorization constitute the bedrock of any proficient Security Operations Center (SOC). These processes dictate the alacrity, precision, and effectiveness of the response measures, and consequently, the mitigation strategies.

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Sections

Introduction to Security Incident Reporting PREVIEW
The Incident Reporting Process
Elements of a Proper Incident Report
Communications
Real-world Incident Report

Relevant Paths

This module progresses you towards the following Paths

SOC Analyst

The SOC Analyst Job Role Path is for newcomers to information security who aspire to become professional SOC analysts. This path covers core security monitoring and security analysis concepts and provides a deep understanding of the specialized tools, attack tactics, and methodology used by adversaries. Armed with the necessary theoretical background and multiple practical exercises, students will go through all security analysis stages, from traffic analysis and SIEM monitoring to DFIR activities and reporting. Upon completing this job role path, you will have obtained the practical skills and mindset necessary to monitor enterprise-level infrastructure and detect intrusions at an intermediate level. The SOC Analyst Prerequisites skill path can be considered prerequisite knowledge to be successful while working through this job role path.

Medium

165 Sections

Required: 1220

Reward: +260

15 Modules included

Incident Handling Process

Fundamental

9 Sections

Reward: +10

Security Incident handling has become a vital part of each organization's defensive strategy, as attacks constantly evolve and successful compromises are becoming a daily occurrence. In this module, we will review the process of handling an incident from the very early stage of detecting a suspicious event, to confirming a compromise and responding to it.

Security Monitoring & SIEM Fundamentals

Easy

11 Sections

Reward: +20

This module provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and the Elastic Stack. It demystifies the essential workings of a Security Operation Center (SOC), explores the application of the MITRE ATT&CK framework within SOCs, and introduces SIEM (KQL) query development. With a focus on practical skills, students will learn how to develop SIEM use cases and visualizations using the Elastic Stack.

Windows Event Logs & Finding Evil

Mini-Module

Medium

6 Sections

Reward: +20

This module covers the exploration of Windows Event Logs and their significance in uncovering suspicious activities. Throughout the course, we delve into the anatomy of Windows Event Logs and highlight the logs that hold the most valuable information for investigations. The module also focuses on utilizing Sysmon and Event Logs for detecting and analyzing malicious behavior. Additionally, we delve into Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), explaining its architecture and components, and provide ETW-based detection examples. To streamline the analysis process, we introduce the powerful Get-WinEvent cmdlet.

Introduction to Threat Hunting & Hunting With Elastic

Mini-Module

Medium

6 Sections

Reward: +20

This module initially lays the groundwork for understanding Threat Hunting, ranging from its basic definition, to the structure of a threat hunting team. The module also dives into the threat hunting process, highlighting the interrelationships between threat hunting, risk assessment, and incident handling. Furthermore, the module elucidates the fundamentals of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). It expands on the different types of threat intelligence and offers guidance on effectively interpreting a threat intelligence report. Finally, the module puts theory into practice, showcasing how to conduct threat hunting using the Elastic stack. This practical segment uses real-world logs to provide learners with hands-on experience.

Understanding Log Sources & Investigating with Splunk

Mini-Module

Medium

6 Sections

Reward: +20

This module provides a comprehensive introduction to Splunk, focusing on its architecture and the creation of effective detection-related SPL (Search Processing Language) searches. We will learn to investigate with Splunk as a SIEM tool and develop TTP-driven and analytics-driven SPL searches for enhanced threat detection and response. Through hands-on exercises, we will learn to identify and understand the ingested data and available fields within Splunk. We will also gain practical experience in leveraging Splunk's powerful features for security monitoring and incident investigation.

Windows Attacks & Defense

Medium

16 Sections

Reward: +20

Microsoft Active Directory (AD) has been, for the past 20+ years, the leading enterprise domain management suite, providing identity and access management, centralized domain administration, authentication, and much more. Throughout those years, the more integrated our applications and data have become with AD, the more exposed to a large-scale compromise we have become. In this module, we will walk through the most commonly abused and fruitful attacks against Active Directory environments that allow threat actors to perform horizontal and vertical privilege escalations in addition to lateral movement. One of the module's core goals is to showcase prevention and detection methods against the covered Active Directory attacks.

Intro to Network Traffic Analysis

Medium

15 Sections

Reward: +10

Network traffic analysis is used by security teams to monitor network activity and look for anomalies that could indicate security and operational issues. Offensive security practitioners can use network traffic analysis to search for sensitive data such as credentials, hidden applications, reachable network segments, or other potentially sensitive information "on the wire." Network traffic analysis has many uses for attackers and defenders alike.

Intermediate Network Traffic Analysis

Easy

18 Sections

Reward: +20

Through network traffic analysis, this module sharpens skills in detecting link layer attacks such as ARP anomalies and rogue access points, identifying network abnormalities like IP spoofing and TCP handshake irregularities, and uncovering application layer threats from web-based vulnerabilities to peculiar DNS activities.

Working with IDS/IPS

Medium

11 Sections

Reward: +20

This module offers an in-depth exploration of Suricata, Snort, and Zeek, covering both rule development and intrusion detection. We'll guide you through signature-based and analytics-based rule development, and you'll learn to tackle encrypted traffic. The module features numerous hands-on examples, focusing on the detection of prevalent malware such as PowerShell Empire, Covenant, Sliver, Cerber, Dridex, Ursnif, and Patchwork. We also dive into detecting attacking techniques like DNS exfiltration, TLS/HTTP Exfiltration, PsExec lateral movement, and beaconing through IDS/IPS.

Introduction to Malware Analysis

Hard

9 Sections

Reward: +20

This module offers an exploration of malware analysis, specifically targeting Windows-based threats. The module covers Static Analysis utilizing Linux and Windows tools, Malware Unpacking, Dynamic Analysis (including malware traffic analysis), Reverse Engineering for Code Analysis, and Debugging using x64dbg. Real-world malware examples such as WannaCry, DoomJuice, Brbbot, Dharma, and Meterpreter are analyzed to provide practical experience.

JavaScript Deobfuscation

Easy

11 Sections

Reward: +10

This module will take you step-by-step through the fundamentals of JavaScript Deobfuscation until you can deobfuscate basic JavaScript code and understand its purpose.

YARA & Sigma for SOC Analysts

Easy

11 Sections

Reward: +20

This Hack The Box Academy module covers how to create YARA rules both manually and automatically and apply them to hunt threats on disk, live processes, memory, and online databases. Then, the module switches gears to Sigma rules covering how to build Sigma rules, translate them into SIEM queries using "sigmac", and hunt threats in both event logs and SIEM solutions. It's all hands-on, using real-world malware and techniques.

Introduction to Digital Forensics

Medium

8 Sections

Reward: +20

Dive into Windows digital forensics with Hack The Box Academy's "Introduction to Digital Forensics" module. Gain mastery over core forensic concepts and tools such as FTK Imager, KAPE, Velociraptor, and Volatility. Dive deep into memory forensics, disk image analysis, and rapid triaging procedures. Learn to construct timelines from MFT, USN Journals, and Windows event logs while getting hands-on with key artifacts like MFT, USN Journal, Registry Hives, Prefetch Files, ShimCache, Amcache, BAM, and SRUM data.

Detecting Windows Attacks with Splunk

Medium

23 Sections

Reward: +20

This Hack The Box Academy module is focused on pinpointing attacks on Windows and Active Directory. Utilizing Splunk as the cornerstone for investigation, this training will arm participants with the expertise to adeptly identify Windows-based threats leveraging Windows Event Logs and Zeek network logs. Furthermore, participants will benefit from actual PCAP files associated with the discussed Windows and Active Directory attacks, enhancing their understanding of the respective attack patterns and techniques.

Security Incident Reporting

Mini-Module

Easy

5 Sections

Reward: +10

Tailored to provide a holistic understanding, this Hack The Box Academy module ensures participants are adept at identifying, categorizing, and documenting security incidents with utmost accuracy and professionalism. The module meticulously breaks down the elements of a robust incident report and then presents participants with a real-world incident report, offering practical insights into the application of the concepts discussed.