Documenting a detection

In the previous chapter, we designed detections to identify indicators of compromise (IoCs), lateral movement, and a mark of the web (MOTW) bypass. While these rules work successfully, they are incomplete because they are not accompanied by documentation supporting the security operation center (SOC) analyst’s ability to understand the resulting alert, respond to it, or maintain the detection. In this chapter, we will review how a detection should be documented, and what information it may be valuable to include to properly document a rule developed in Chapter 7 for the mark of the web bypass technique.

Properly documenting a detection can be as important as the detection rule itself. If the analyst does not understand why the detection fired, what it was detecting, or what steps to take when the detection does fire, the alert may not be properly actioned or actioned at all. If an alert fires and no one is there to review it, does it make a sound?...