Collaborate on investigations in Splunk Enterprise Security
As a security analyst, you can share information on investigations and findings with other analysts to collaborate on identifying root cause and security threats through knowledge sharing.
You can add details and evidence to your investigation such as actions, and notes. You can add findings or other events that add insight to the investigation.
Use notes and upload files to add relevant information like links to online press coverage, tweets, or screenshots. Additionally, you can record important investigation steps that you take, such as phone, email, or chat conversations as notes on the investigation.
You can also leverage features such as IDs and shared views to collaborate on open findings and investigations. Select the unique ID for investigations such as ES-11005 to copy the link to the investigation and share it with other analysts.
Assign a finding or an investigation to an analyst
Owners are unassigned by default, and you can assign findings and investigations to any user with an administrator, ess_admin, or ess_analyst role.
Follow these steps to assign a finding or an investigation to an analyst:
- In Splunk Enterprise Security, go to the Mission Control page.
- Select a finding or an investigation from the Analyst queue to which you want to assign an owner.
- In the details page, go to Owner drop-down and assign an owner to the finding or the investigation. Alternatively, select Assign to me by selecting the three dots Actions menu next to the finding or the investigation and assign it to yourself.
- (optional) Add notes to the finding or the investigation.
- Select Save to save your changes.
Create and share notes on an investigation
Edit or delete notes in an investigation
Edit or delete existing notes in an investigation by selecting the drop-down menu next to the note and then selecting the Edit or Delete option.
All changes to the notes can be tracked in the audit logs. For example, you can use the following search to identify any modifications to notes included in an investigation.
index=_audit source=mc_notes | rex "(?<timestamp>[\d.]+),(?<incident_id>[\w-]+),(?<user>[\w_]+),(?<model>[\w]+),(?<command>[\w]+),(?<diff>.+)" | eval time=_time | table time, user, source, incident_id, diff, command
Upload files to an investigation
Upload files to add relevant information such as links to online press coverage, tweets, or screenshots.
Follow these steps to upload files to an investigation:
- In Splunk Enterprise Security, select the Mission Control page.
- From the Analyst queue, go to the specific investigation to which you want to add notes and select the investigation.
- Select View details and go to the investigation Overview page.
- Go to the Files section and select Upload files.Note: All file types are supported. You can also choose to drag and drop your file for upload.
Copy links to an investigation
Copy links to an investigation to share details of the information with other analysts.
Follow these steps to copy links to an investigation:
- In Splunk Enterprise Security, select the Mission Control page.
- From the Analyst queue, select the investigation for which you want to share the link.
- Select the ellipses drop-down in the investigation details panel, and then select Copy link to copy the investigation link on your clipboard and share it with other analysts or users.
Make files available to Splunk SOAR
If your Splunk Enterprise Security environment is paired with your Splunk SOAR environment, you can use Splunk Enterprise Security files in apps and playbooks. For example, you might create a playbook that takes files you specify and detonates them in a sandbox.
The word SOAR displays next to the name of files available in Splunk SOAR.
For information on pairing with Splunk SOAR, see Pair Splunk Enterprise Security with Splunk SOAR.
Follow these steps to make a file available to Splunk SOAR:
- In Splunk Enterprise Security, select the Mission Control page.
- From the Analyst queue, go to the investigation with the specific file and select the investigation.
- Select View details and go to the investigation Overview page.
- Go to the Files section and locate the file.
- Select the three dots associated with that file and select Make available to SOAR.
Follow these steps to use files available in Splunk SOAR:
- In Splunk Enterprise Security, select the Mission Control page.
- From the Analyst queue, go to the investigation with the specific file and select the investigation.
- Select View details and go to the investigation Overview page.
- Go to the Files section and locate the file.
- Select the three dots associated with that file and select Copy SOAR vault ID.
If you want to run a playbook that uses files in this section, you must make all files available to SOAR. If you add files later and want to include those in playbook runs, make those new files available to SOAR and run the playbook again.
Delete files from Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk SOAR, or both
Deleting a file removes it entirely from Splunk Enterprise Security, from Splunk SOAR, or from both.
If you are using this file in another investigation, that copy of the file is not removed.
Follow these steps to delete a file:
- In Splunk Enterprise Security, select the Mission Control page.
- From the Analyst queue, go to the investigation with the specific file and select the investigation.
- Select View details and go to the investigation Overview page.
- Go to the Files section and locate the file.
- Select the three dots associated with that file and select Delete file.
See also
For more information on collaborating to review findings and investigations in Splunk Enterprise Security, see the product documentation:
- Configure users and roles in the Splunk Enterprise Security Installation and Upgrade Manual.
- Manage analyst workflows using the analyst queue in Splunk Enterprise Security
- Manage saved views in Splunk Enterprise Security
- Managing access to investigations in Splunk Enterprise Security