Indicator Extraction - Threat Intel Management Guide - 6.8 - Cortex XSOAR - Cortex - Security Operations

Cortex XSOAR Threat Intel Management Guide

Product
Cortex XSOAR
Version
6.8
Creation date
2022-09-29
Last date published
2023-12-12
End_of_Life
EoL
Category
Threat Intel Management Guide

Indicator extraction identifies indicators from different text sources in the system (such as War Room entries, email content, etc.), extracts them (usually based on regex) and creates indicators in Cortex XSOAR. After extraction, the indicator can be enriched.

Indicator enrichment takes the extracted indicator and provides detailed information about the indicator (from open ports to whois information, etc.). It provides a story about the indicator, based on an enrichment feed such as VirusTotal, IPinfo, etc.

In Cortex XSOAR, the indicator extraction feature extracts indicators from incident fields and enriches them using commands (such as the !url command), and scripts defined for the indicator type, such as urlscan.io, URLhaus. Provided the indicator extraction is enabled, you can configure the extraction logic according to the incident type and according to the associated field.

You can extract indicators when fetching incidents, when incident fields are updated, and in playbook tasks. You can also use commands like !extractIndicators, !enrichindicators, !ip, etc.

Note

Reputation commands, such as !ip, !domain can only be used when you configure and enable a reputation integration instance, such as Virus Total, Whois, etc.

As your system matures and you start ingesting more events with more integrations configured, you need to consider customizing your incident type, including how to extract indicators.

Caution

Extracting indicators can adversely affect system performance. We recommend that you define extraction settings for each incident type, as needed.

For example, for Malware you may want to extract all IP addresses, for Phishing you may only want to extract IP addresses from specific email headers. For attachments, you may want to disable indicator extraction to reduce external API usage and protect restricted data (the hash) from being sent.

Some content packs include a dashboard and widget that track API rate limit errors. You can use this information for troubleshooting and to make decisions about indicator enrichment.

Indicator Extraction Rules

You can create indicator extraction rules by using the following methods:

  • Incident Types

    You can extract indicators from incident fields on creation of an incident and when a field changes. Indicator extraction rules are set out-of-the-box for content pack installed incident types. For example, in a Phishing incident type, by default, in the Destination IP field, IPv6 and IP indicators are extracted. For the Detection URL field, the URL indicator field is extracted, etc.

    Provided the indicator extraction settings are enabled and depending on the rules set in the incident type, indicator extraction is automatic. For example, in a phishing incident, indicator extraction is set to extract the IP indicator (in the incident type). When the incident field updates, the IP indicator field is extracted automatically. In the War Room, you can check that the IP indicator field has been extracted by typing 1.1.1.1. Cortex XSOAR recognizes the indicator as an IP indicator by matching it to the IP indicator’s regex. It then extracts and enriches the indicator using an integration that uses the IP command (such as, IPinfo).

    Note

    To edit content packs installed incident types including those propagated to a tenant in a multi-tenant environment, you need to detach them. Once detached, the incident type does not receive new content from Cortex XSOAR. If you want to receive content updates reattach the incident type. If you want to receive content updates and save the content, duplicate the incident type. For more information, see customize incident layouts.Customize Incident Layouts

  • Playbook Tasks

  • Commands: Run a command using the command line in Cortex XSOAR during an investigation.

Indicator Extraction Mode Options

Indicator extraction supports the following modes:

  • None

  • Inline

  • Out of band

  • Use system default

For detailed information about the modes and how to set them up, see Indicator Extraction Modes.

Indicator Scripts

When creating or editing an indicator type, you can add the following scripts:

Using Indicator Extraction in the CLI

You can run various commands in the CLI, such as !extractIndicators!enrichindicators, !ip,!domainand reputation script commands such as URLReputationIPReputation. For more information, see Run Indicator Extraction in the CLI.

Note

Reputation commands, such as !ip, !domain can only be used when you configure and enable a reputation integration instance, such as Virus Total, Whois, etc.

Upgrade Cortex XSOAR

When upgrading from version 6.0.x and below:

  • By default, all incident types (from a content pack) are detached.

  • Indicator extraction is enabled for all incident fields, but if you have already selected an extraction mode, this is not affected. For example, if it is set to none there will be no extraction on incident creation. It is recommended to review the incident types, and select the required extraction rules.

  • The incident field change is set to none.

Troubleshoot Indicator Extraction

If indicators are not extracting, check whether the indicator mode is set to none. Even if you select the relevant incident fields and the indicators to extract, if the mode is set to none, indicators do not extract.

When creating new incident types, if you select Extract all indicators from all fields, all fields are extracted including the custom field. If you select Extract specific indicators by default, indicator extraction for the new custom field is set to none.

In a Multi-tenant environment, when installing a content pack in the Marketplace, the propagation labels enable the entire content pack to propagate to the tenant. For example, when installing the Content Pack (which includes an incident type) in the Marketplace, if the propagation label is set to all, it is propagated to the tenant. Even if you change the propagation label in the incident type, it has already been propagated.

The incident type labels can also propagate the incident type to additional tenants for which the content pack was not propagated.

If the incident type is not being updated in the tenant’s account, check whether the incident type is detached. If the tenant detaches the incident type, the changes are not updated from the Main Account.