Security Playbook and a Runbook in SOAR: What are they and how to use them?

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) is a term that describes a set of capabilities that enable security teams to efficiently and effectively handle security incidents and threats. SOAR solutions typically provide features such as data collection, enrichment, analysis, triage, response, and reporting. One of the key benefits of SOAR is that it allows security teams to automate and orchestrate various tasks and actions that would otherwise require manual intervention and coordination.

However, automation and orchestration are not possible without having well-defined and documented procedures and processes for handling different types of security incidents and scenarios. This is where security playbooks and runbooks come in. In this article, we will explain what security playbooks and runbooks are, how they differ from each other, and how they can be used together to achieve a more effective and efficient security operations.

What is a Security Playbook?

A security playbook is a step-by-step guide for handling cyber incidents and threats. It provides a structured approach to cyber events, and ensures swift and confident actions to minimize potential damage. A security playbook typically consists of the following elements:

- Roles and responsibilities: Clearly defined for each team member involved in the incident response process, such as analysts, engineers, managers, and stakeholders.

- Procedures: Specific actions for different cybersecurity scenarios, such as phishing, ransomware, denial-of-service, etc. Procedures may include tasks such as data collection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and reporting.

- Dynamic: Incorporates lessons from past incidents and industry best practices, and adapts to changing threat landscape and organizational needs.

A security playbook can be used as a manual backup in case the SOAR solution fails, or as a reference for training and awareness purposes. A security playbook can also be used to document the compliance requirements and standards that need to be followed during the incident response process, such as NIST, GDPR, PCI-DSS, etc.

What is a Security Runbook?

A security runbook is a set of conditional steps to perform actions, such as data enrichment, threat containment, and sending notifications, automatically as part of the incident response or security operations process. A security runbook typically consists of the following elements:

- Triggers: Events or conditions that initiate the execution of the runbook, such as alerts, indicators of compromise, or user inputs.

- Actions: Tasks or commands that are performed by the runbook, such as querying databases, sending emails, blocking IPs, or running scripts.

- Conditions: Logical expressions that determine the flow of the runbook, such as if-then-else, switch-case, or loop statements.

- Outputs: Results or outputs that are generated by the runbook, such as logs, reports, or alerts.

A security runbook can be used to automate and orchestrate repetitive and tedious tasks that would otherwise consume a lot of time and resources. A security runbook can also be used to standardize and optimize the incident response process, and reduce human errors and inconsistencies.

How to use security Playbooks and Runbooks together?

Security playbooks and runbooks are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary. They can be used together to achieve a more effective and efficient security operations. Here are some examples of how security playbooks and runbooks can be used together:

- Playbook-driven runbooks: A playbook can define the high-level strategy and procedure for handling a specific incident type or scenario, and a runbook can implement the low-level actions and tasks that are required to execute the playbook. For example, a playbook can outline the steps for responding to a phishing incident, such as verifying the source, analyzing the email, identifying the targets, and notifying the users, and a runbook can automate and orchestrate the actions for each step, such as querying the email headers, extracting the URLs, checking the reputation, and sending the notifications.

- Runbook-driven playbooks: A runbook can trigger the execution of a playbook based on certain events or conditions, and a playbook can guide the human intervention and decision making that are required to complete the incident response process. For example, a runbook can detect and contain a ransomware attack, such as blocking the network traffic, isolating the infected machines, and taking the backups, and a playbook can instruct the human response team on how to eradicate the malware, restore the systems, and report the incident.

- Hybrid playbooks and runbooks: A playbook and a runbook can be combined into a single entity that provides both automation and orchestration capabilities, as well as human interaction and oversight. For example, a hybrid playbook and runbook can handle a denial-of-service attack, such as collecting and analyzing the traffic data, mitigating the attack, and escalating the incident, and also allow the human response team to monitor, intervene, and approve the actions as needed.

Benifits of Security Playbook and a Runbook in SOAR

Security Playbook and Runbook are two terms that are often used in the context of SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response), a framework that helps organizations streamline and automate their security operations.

A Security Playbook is a step-by-step guide for handling cyber incidents and threats, such as ransomware, phishing, or data breach. It defines the roles, responsibilities, procedures, and tools that are required for each incident scenario. A Security Playbook can help you establish formalized and consistent incident response processes, and ensure that you follow the best practices and compliance standards.

A Runbook is a subset of a Playbook that automates and orchestrates the tasks and actions involved in the incident response process, such as data enrichment, threat containment, and sending notifications. A Runbook can help you accelerate and streamline your incident response, and reduce the manual effort and human errors.

Some of the benefits of using Security Playbook and Runbook in SOAR are:

• Faster and more efficient incident response: You can respond to incidents and threats in real time, and reduce the impact and duration of an attack. You can also leverage the automation and integration capabilities of SOAR platforms to execute actions across multiple tools and systems from a single pane of glass.
• Improved security posture and resilience: You can improve your security visibility and intelligence by ingesting and enriching data from various sources, such as SIEM, EDR, firewall, or email. You can also learn from past incidents and apply the lessons to improve your security policies and procedures.
• Enhanced team collaboration and communication: You can clearly define the roles and responsibilities of your incident response team, and establish the communication channels and escalation paths for each role. You can also keep your stakeholders and customers informed and updated on the incident status and resolution.

How to create Security Playbook and Runbook in SOAR

A Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) playbook is a set of predefined workflows that automate the incident response process. These playbooks are designed to help security operations teams respond to security incidents more quickly and effectively by automating routine tasks and standardizing incident response procedures. Here are some steps to create a cybersecurity playbook and runbook in SOAR:

1. Identify the security incident: The first step is to identify the security incident that you want to automate. This could be anything from malware infections to phishing attacks to network breaches.

2. Define the playbook: Once you have identified the security incident, you need to define the playbook. This involves creating a set of predefined workflows that automate the incident response process. You can use a variety of tools to create your playbook, including security orchestration platforms and scripting languages such as Python and PowerShell.

3. Customize the playbook: After defining the playbook, you need to customize it to fit the specific needs of your organization. This involves modifying the predefined workflows to match your organization's security policies and procedures.

4. Test the playbook: Once you have customized the playbook, you need to test it to ensure that it works as expected. This involves running the playbook against a simulated security incident to verify that it automates the incident response process correctly.

5. Deploy the playbook: After testing the playbook, you can deploy it in your organization's security operations center (SOC). This involves integrating the playbook with your existing security tools and processes to automate the incident response process.

Examples of SOAR playbooks to streamline SOC processes:

1. SOAR Playbook for Automated Incident Response: This playbook automates the incident response process for a wide range of security threats, such as phishing, malware, DoS, web defacement, and ransomware. It can be customized to handle specific security threats and can be used to block threat indicators (IOCs) on a variety of security tools, including firewalls, EDR solutions, and SIEMs.

2. SOAR Playbook for Ransomware: This playbook automates the incident response process for ransomware attacks. It can detect ransomware infections, isolate infected systems, and block ransomware communication channels.

3. SOAR Playbook for Phishing Email Investigations: This playbook automates the incident response process for phishing attacks. It can detect phishing emails, analyze email content for suspicious patterns, and quarantine affected emails.

4. SOAR Playbook for Cryptojacking: This playbook automates the incident response process for cryptojacking attacks. It can detect cryptojacking activity, isolate infected systems, and block cryptojacking domains.

5. SOAR Playbook for Vulnerability Management: This playbook automates the incident response process for vulnerabilities. It can detect vulnerabilities, prioritize them based on severity, and initiate patching workflows.

6. SOAR Playbook for Threat Hunting: This playbook automates the incident response process for threat hunting. It can detect suspicious activity, investigate it, and escalate it to the appropriate team.

7. SOAR Playbook for Automated Patching and Remediation: This playbook automates the incident response process for patching and remediation. It can detect missing patches, prioritize them based on severity, and initiate patching workflows.

8. SOAR Playbook for Case management: This playbook automates the incident response process for case management. It can create cases, assign them to the appropriate team, and track their progress .

9. SOAR Playbook for Cloud Security: This playbook automates the incident response process for cloud security threats. It can detect cloud security incidents, isolate affected resources, and initiate remediation workflows.

10. SOAR Playbook for Network Security: This playbook automates the incident response process for network security threats. It can detect network security incidents, isolate affected systems, and initiate remediation workflows.

11. SOAR Playbook for Identity and Access Management: This playbook automates the incident response process for identity and access management (IAM) threats. It can detect IAM incidents, revoke access, and initiate remediation workflows.

12. SOAR Playbook for Compliance Management: This playbook automates the incident response process for compliance management. It can detect compliance violations, initiate remediation workflows, and generate compliance reports.

13. SOAR Playbook for Data Loss Prevention: This playbook automates the incident response process for data loss prevention (DLP). It can detect DLP incidents, quarantine affected data, and initiate remediation workflows.

14. SOAR Playbook for Endpoint Security: This playbook automates the incident response process for endpoint security threats. It can detect endpoint security incidents, isolate affected systems, and initiate remediation workflows.

Conclusion

Security playbooks and runbooks are essential components of a SOAR solution that enable security teams to handle security incidents and threats more effectively and efficiently. Security playbooks provide a structured strategy and procedure for handling different types of cyber events, and security runbooks provide a conditional logic and actions for automating and orchestrating various tasks and actions. Security playbooks and runbooks can be used together to achieve a more comprehensive and robust security operations.