Configure a sub-playbook - Administrator Guide - Cortex XSIAM - Cortex - Security Operations

Cortex XSIAM Documentation

Product
Cortex XSIAM
Creation date
2024-03-06
Last date published
2025-02-19
Category
Administrator Guide
Abstract

Configure a sub-playbook, also to run in a loop.

Playbooks can be divided into two categories, depending on their use.

  • Parent playbooks are playbooks that run as the main playbook of an alert.

  • Sub-playbooks are playbooks that are nested under other playbooks. They appear as tasks in the parent playbook flow and are indicated by the sub-playbook icon sub-playbook-icon.png. A sub-playbook can also be a parent playbook in a different use case. For example, IP Enrichment - Generic v2 and Retrieve File From Endpoint - Generic v3. These playbooks are usually used as part of a bigger investigation.

    Since sub-playbooks are building blocks that can be used in other playbooks and use cases, you should define generic inputs for them.

Inputs can be passed to sub-playbooks from the parent playbook, used and processed in the sub-playbook, and sent as output to the parent playbook.

Note

Any change made to a sub-playbook impacts the parent playbook in the next run of the parent playbook.

Sub-playbook loops

Looping uses sub-playbooks to create loops within a parent playbook. When running the loop, the values are calculated based on the context data for the sub-playbook and not the parent playbook.

Note

Consider the following when adding a loop:

  • The maximum number of loops (default is 100). A high number of loops or a high wait time combined with a large number of alerts may affect performance.

  • Periodically check looping conditions to ensure they are still valid for the data set.

  • When the task input is an array, it is iterated automatically (no need to define a loop).

How to create a sub-playbook loop
  1. In the Playbooks page, select the parent playbook that contains the sub-playbook task you want to run in a loop.

  2. Click Edit.

    If the playbook is installed from a content pack, you need to either detach or duplicate the playbook before editing.

  3. Select the task that contains the sub-playbook for which you want to create the loop.

  4. Click the Loop tab.

  5. Click one of the following options to define loop settings:

    • None: (Default) The sub-playbook does not loop.

    • Built-in: Use built-in functions to define loop settings:

      Option

      Description

      Exit when

      Enables you to define when to exit the loop. Click {} and expand the source category. Hover over the required source and click Filter & Transform to the left of the source to manipulate the data.

      Equals (String)

      Select the operator to define how the values should be evaluated.

      Max iterations

      The number of times the loop should run.

      Sleep

      The number of seconds to wait between iterations.

      recommends that you balance between the number of iterations and the number of seconds to wait between iterations so you don't overload the server.

    • For each input: Runs the sub-playbook based on defined inputs. Enter the number of seconds to wait between iterations.

    • Choose Loop automation: Select the automation from the drop-down list to define when to exit the loop. The parameters that appear are applicable to the selected automation.

  6. To save the changes, click OK.

In the parent playbook (the task that contains the sub-playbook), you can configure to exit a loop running the sub-playbook automatically when the last item in the sub-playbook input is executed.

  • If the input is a single item, the sub-playbook runs once, but if the input is a list of items (such as a list of alert IDs), the sub-playbook runs as many times as there are items in the list. Each iteration of the sub-playbook uses the next item in the list as the input.

  • If there are multiple input lists with the same amount of items, the sub-playbook runs once for each set of inputs.

  • If there are multiple input lists with different amounts of items, the sub-playbook runs the first set of inputs, followed by the second, third, and so on, until the end.

    For example:

    Input

    Value

    Input x

    1,2,3,4

    Input y

    a,b,c,d

    Input z

    9

    The first loop: 1, a, 9

    The second loop: 2, b, 9

    The third loop: 3, c, 9

    The fourth loop: 4, d, 9