New to LogRhythm 7.4: Playbooks Feature Set

Create playbooks

Attach playbooks to cases

Use playbook metrics to optimize your SOC operations

Support your security best practices

The Mission: Editable Playbooks

Read the plain text files

Connect to a security information & event management (SIEM) solution to inject the content as playbooks

Use the API to export the finished playbooks in the export format

Use the API to import the playbooks back into the SIEM and verify that everything worked

Overview: The 7-Step Process

Confirm the execution system has the right certificates. Create an API token using the Client Console. Read the input file. Create the playbook and get an ID. Inject each procedure into the playbook. Export the completed playbook in the .pbe format. Import the playbook into a different SIEM instance to verify that the procedure worked.

/lr-case-api/playbooks: This endpoint will let you create the playbook and get a unique ID value for each playbook you create. This is the “container” for your procedures. /lr-case-api/playbooks/[playbookid]/procedures: This endpoint will let you add procedures to the playbook you create in the first call, described later in step 4.

Think of the URL as a pointer to the resource with which you’re working. The HTTP verb indicates the action (e.g., POST, PUT, GET, etc.).

Step 1: Confirm the Certificates

From the machine running the case API (typically, the XM or Platform Manager), copy C:\Program Files\LogRhythm\LogRhythm Common\LogRhythm API Gateway\tls\server.crt. Paste it to the machine on which Case API scripts will run. Double-click server.crt on the machine which Case API scripts will run. Windows should associate this file type with the certificate manager application. Click Install Certificate. Click Local Machine (note that it isn’t the default). Click Next. Click Place All Certificates in the Following Store. Select Trust Root Certification Authorities. Click OK. Click Finish.

Step 2: Get an API Token

The token provides a security barrier to calling the service. This helps us prevent unauthorized access to the system. The token identifies “who” is calling the API. This allows the SIEM to determine appropriate access levels and permissions.

Open the LogRhythm client console. Select the Deployment Manager. Select the Third Party Applications tab, the last tab in the row. Note: This is a new tab in 7.4! Create a new third-party application. To do this: Click the green plus sign in the client console toolbar. This will bring up the Third Party Application Properties box.

In this box, type in the name and description for your application. Click Apply to generate the token. This will force a quick restart of the authentication server to set up and validate the token. After a few moments, the client ID and client secret will appear. Adjust the expiry date as desired to make the token last longer or expire faster. By default, the token expires after 365 days (one year). Click Generate Token to create an API token. Enter the user name and password of the LogRhythm account that the token should connect with. Copy and paste the token into a text file that can be referenced from the PowerShell script.

Step 3: Read the Input File

$Server: This is the hostname of the server running Case API. This name must match the subject name in the server’s certificate. If not, it won’t pass certificate validation. Example: server.domain.local

This is the hostname of the server running Case API. This name must match the subject name in the server’s certificate. If not, it won’t pass certificate validation. Example: server.domain.local $ APIKeyPath: This is the path and filename to the text file containing the API key pasted from step 2. Example: C:\RestAPI\APIKey.txt

This is the path and filename to the text file containing the API key pasted from step 2. Example: C:\RestAPI\APIKey.txt $PlaybookJSON: This is the path and filename to the .json file for creating the playbook. We’ll explain this more below. Example: C:\PlaybookCreate\CreatePlaybookRequest.json

This is the path and filename to the .json file for creating the playbook. We’ll explain this more below. Example: C:\PlaybookCreate\CreatePlaybookRequest.json $ ProcedureJSON: This is the path and filename to the .json file for playbook procedures (explained below). Example: C:\PlaybookCreate\UpdatePlaybookProcedure.json

Step 4: Create the Playbook and get an ID

{ name: Playbook Name, description: Playbook Description, permissions: { read: privateOwnerOnly, write: privateOwnerOnly }, entities: [ 1 ] }

Name: The name of the playbook.

The name of the playbook. Description: A short description of the playbook, including its purpose and when to use it.

A short description of the playbook, including its purpose and when to use it. Permissions: Our Online Help explains the permissions. They define who can use or modify the playbook.

Our Online Help explains the permissions. They define who can use or modify the playbook. Entities: By default, you want this playbook to apply to the Primary Entity ID (1). But if you were segregating playbooks by entity, you could restrict it to other entities.

#Define connection parameters to API $APIConnection = $Server + ':8501' $APIKey = Get-Content $APIKeyPath $token = Bearer $APIKey $header = @{Authorization=$token} #Force PowerShell to use TLS 1.2 [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12 # Create playbook $url = https://$APIConnection/lr-case-api/playbooks/ $method = 'POST' $body = get-content $PlaybookJSON $playbook = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -headers $header -Method $method -body $body # Capture GUID from creation response for updating procedures$playbooksTable = $playbook.content|ConvertFrom-Json $playbookID = $playbooksTable.id

Step 5: Inject Procedures

[ { name: new procedure name, description: Send email to sarah.smith@company.com, dueWithinSeconds: 0 } ]

#Populate Playbook with procedures $url = https://$APIConnection/lr-case-api/playbooks/$playbookID/procedures/ $method = 'PUT' $body = get-content $ProcedureJSON $playbook = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -headers $header -Method $method -body $body

Step 6: Export the Playbook

$method = 'GET' $url = https://$APIConnection/lr-case-api/playbooks/$id/export/ Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -headers $header -Method $method -outfile $ExportPath -passthru

Step 7: Import the Playbook for Verification

#Get the file path as a string $InFilePath = Convert-Path($Infile.PSPath) write-host Importing $InfilePath #Encode the file contents for the web request $fileContents = [IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($InFilePath) $enc = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding(iso-8859-1) $fileEnc = $enc.GetString($fileContents) # Create the request body. $bodyLines = ( --$boundary, Content-Disposition: form-data; name=`file`; filename=`$InFile`, Content-Type: application/octet-stream$LF, $fileEnc, --$boundary--$LF ) -join $LF try { # Returns the response received from the server (we pass it on). # Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $URL -Headers $header -Method $method -ContentType multipart/form-data; boundary=$boundary -TimeoutSec 20 -Body $bodylines } catch [System.Net.WebException] { Write-Error( FAILED to reach '$URL': $_ ) throw $_ } }

Conclusion

Standard procedures have been a cornerstone of security best practice since their invention. You may call them runbooks, standing procedures, checklists, or playbooks. Either way, you likely have one or more collections of “when X happens, do steps X1, X2, X3.” With the launch of LogRhythm 7.4, we took this standard best practice and fully incorporated it with case management in our web console. Our new playbooks feature set lets you:One of the best elements is the full-featured REST-based application programming interface (API). It allows you to create and manipulate custom playbooks. This blog will uncover how LogRhythm Labs used this API tier to make the playbooks posted on Community . Then you can use this same process to create playbooks of your own! If you aren’t familiar with playbooks yet, you can learn more from:You can download the PowerShell scripts that go with this blog from GitHub The LogRhythm Labs team developed a set of prebuilt playbooks. However, the playbooks are designed to be simple text files that you can edit and manage. That means you need a mechanism to:Fortunately, you don’t have to manually copy and paste data into the playbook builder user interface. Instead, you can use the playbook API to perform all these tasks.To create, upload, and export a playbook:Before reviewing these steps in detail, we have a few notes for you on APIs. All the new LogRhythm APIs are RESTful and based on the idea that you operate on domain “resources.” For this purpose, you’re going to use two key endpoints:If you aren’t familiar with REST , here are the two key things you should know:Now, let’s break down each step.All the LogRhythm REST APIs leverage HTTPS/TLS 1.2 with trusted certificates. Although this is a security best practice, it is also a bit of a barrier to jumping into using the APIs. Therefore, you must first install the correct certificate on the client machine that will run the APIs. By default, the Case API uses the self-signed certificate located in C:\Program Files\LogRhythm\LogRhythm Common\LogRhythm API Gateway\tls\server.crt on the LogRhythm Web Console server. You should install this certificate into the Trusted Root Certificate Authority Store on the machine from which you will run your case API scripts. Here are the steps to install the certificate:Note: For the certificate verification to succeed, the subject name in the certificate must match the hostname used in your case API scripts. This hostname should be the same you use when accessing the Web Console. For more information on using custom certificates for the LogRhythm API Gateway, please refer to the Common Components section of the Certificate Configuration for LogRhythm Component Connections topic in Online Help.Along with the HTTPS certificate, you also need an API token. This serves the following purposes:You can generate a token from the client console by taking the following steps: Figure 1: The Third-Party Application Properties tab in the LogRhythm client consoleThe PowerShell scripts expect certain input variables. For simplicity, they are set up as hard-coded variables in the script. You can extend the script to read these from a property file. For our production code, we wrote .json input files that stored the key values. The following variables need to have values assigned for the scripts to work:The first two variables will be constants for your SIEM. The last two variables will change based on how many playbooks you create.The first call you need is a POST (i.e., create a new resource) to the playbook’s endpoint because you are creating a playbook. The POST method accepts a JSON body that contains the details of the playbook. The call is: The call features a JSON body of:In the JSON body, you define:When you execute the POST command, the return value will contain the new ID assigned to this playbook. You need the ID for later calls. If something went wrong, you’d receive an invalid HTTP code. Also, the payload would have an error message describing the problem. The most common errors are skipping the certificates (i.e., HTTP 401 forbidden) or having invalid JSON. In PowerShell, using the LRAPI token, the code looks like this:Creating a procedure for the playbook requires the following (and slightly more complicated) URL path: When you create procedures, you want to “create or replace”; therefore, PUT is a more appropriate HTTP verb. The JSON body looks like this:The parameters are simple. The “dueWithinSeconds” parameter sets the expected deadline for the procedure. A value of 0 indicates no deadline. If you wanted this step to take no more than an hour, you’d enter 3600 (60 seconds * 60 minutes). For one day, you’d enter 86400. In PowerShell, a typical call would look like this:Exporting the playbook is as simple as a single call to the “export” method on the playbook resource. You will need the playbook ID from step 4! The full call is: Because this is a GET method, you don’t need to pass in any JSON body. You only have to capture and save the file returned by the call. Using the following PowerShell call, this is simple:Now, you may want to verify the export and automate loading the playbook (.pbe) file back into the SIEM. For this, there is an easy-to-use import endpoint: Because you’re uploading a file, there’s a little more work to set the encoding and HTTP mime type. You also typically want to put some timeouts around this command in case of slow network activity. In PowerShell, the command looks like this:The case API is exceptionally friendly. And now, you can automate playbook creation from external sources in a readable format. You can also export, import, and update the playbooks through automation. Are you interested in learning how to use the API to automate other actions? Check out the Community. You’ll find posts on how to assign playbooks to cases, change the status of a procedure, and more!