An attack can affect several hosts or users and raises different alert types stemming from a single event. All artifacts, assets, and alerts from a threat event are gathered into an Incident.
The logic behind which alert the Cortex XDR app assigns to an incident is based on a set of rules which take into account different attributes. Examples of alert attributes include alert source, type, and time period. The app extracts a set of artifacts related to the threat event, listed in each alert, and compares it with the artifacts appearing in existing alerts in the system. Alerts on the same causality chain are grouped with the same incident if an open incident already exists. Otherwise, the new incoming alert will create a new incident.
To keep incidents fresh and relevant, Cortex XDR provides thresholds after which an incident stops adding alerts:
30 days after the incident was created
14 days since the last alert in the incident was detected (excludes backward scan alerts)
After the incident reaches either threshold, it stops accepting alerts, and Cortex XDR groups subsequent related alerts in a new incident. You can track the grouping threshold status in the Alerts Grouping Status field in the Incidents table:
Enabled—The incident is open to accepting new related alerts.
Disabled—The grouping threshold is reached and the incident is closed to further alerts or if the incident reached the 1,000 alert limit. To view the exact reason for a Disabled status, hover over the status field.
You can select to view the Incidents page in a table format or split pane mode. Use 
to toggle between the views. By default, Cortex XDR displays the split pane mode. Any changes you make to the incident fields, such as description, resolution status, filters, and sort selections persist when you toggle between the modes.
The split pane mode displays a side-by-side view of your incidents list and the corresponding incident details.
The table view displays only the incident fields in a table format. Right-click an incident to view the incident details, and investigate the related assets, artifacts, and alerts. For more information see Investigate Incidents.
The following table describes both the default and additional optional fields that you can view in the Incidents table and lists the fields in alphabetical order.
Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Check box to select one or more incidents on which to perform the following actions.
| |
Alert Categories | Type of alert categories triggered by the incident alerts. | |
Alert Source | Source of the alert, such as XDR Analytics BIOC, XDR BIOC, and Correlation. | |
Alerts Grouping Status | Displays whether Alert Grouping is currently enabled. | |
Alerts Breakdown | The total number of alerts and number of alerts by severity. | |
Assignee Email | Email address associated with the assigned incident owner. | |
Assigned To | The user to which the incident is assigned. The assignee tracks which analyst is responsible for investigating the threat. Incidents that have not been assigned have a status of Unassigned. | |
Creation Time | Date and time when the incident was created. | |
High Severity Alerts | Number of high severity alerts that are part of the incident. | |
Hosts | Displays the host names affected by the incident. | |
Incident Description | The description is generated from the alert name from the first alert added to the incident, the host and user affected, or number of users and hosts affected. | |
Incident ID | A unique number to identify the incident. | |
Incident Name | A user-defined incident name. | |
Incident Sources | List of sources that raised high and medium severity alerts in the incident. | |
Last Updated | The last time a user took an action or an alert was added to the incident. | |
Low Severity Alerts | Number of low severity alerts that are part of the incident. | |
Medium Severity | Number of medium severity alerts that are part of the incident. | |
MITRE ATT&CK Tactic | Displays the types of MITRE ATT&CK tactics triggered by the alerts that are part of the incident. | |
MITRE ATT&CK Technique | Displays the type of MITRE ATT&CK technique and sub-technique triggered by the alerts that are part of the incident. | |
Resolve Comment | The user-added comment when the user changes the incident status to a Resolved status. | |
Resolved Timestamp | Displays the date and time when the incident was set with a resolved status. | |
Score | Displays the score defined by the incident scoring rule. For SmartScore incident scores, hover your cursor over each score to view the main reasons for the score calculation. | |
Severity | The highest alert in the incident or the user-defined severity. | |
Starred | The incident includes alerts that match your incident prioritization policy. Incidents that have alert matches include a star by the incident name in the Incident details view and a value of Yes in this field. | |
Status | Incidents have the status set to New when they are generated. To begin investigating an incident, set the status to Under Investigation. The Resolved status is subdivided into resolution reasons:
| |
Tags | Displays the tag family and the corresponding tags. If SBAC is enabled, the user can view and manage the incident according the user's scope settings. NoteWhen viewing incidents as a scoped user when a tenant is set to permissive mode, the user can view the incident but not have access to entities outside their scope. When viewing incidents as a scoped user when a tenant is set to restrictive mode, the incident content is not visible. The user can send the incident ID to the administrator to add to the user scope so the user can view the incident. | |
Total Alerts | The total number of alerts in the incident. | |
Users | Users affected by the alerts in the incident. If more than one user is affected, click on + <n> more to see the list of all users in the incident. | |
WildFire Hits | Number of the Malware, Phishing, and Grayware artifacts that are part of the incident. |
