Atomic Runbook: Lookup IP Entity Activity in Chronicle

Atomic Runbook: Lookup IP Entity Activity in Chronicle#

ID: RB-ATOM-IP-003 Version: 1.0 Last_Updated: 2025-05-30 Purpose: To retrieve a summary of an IP address’s activity from Chronicle SIEM using the lookup_entity tool. This provides a quick overview of internal interactions, related alerts, and first/last seen times within a defined window. Parent_Runbook(s)/Protocol(s): rules-bank/indicator_handling_protocols.md#1-atomic-indicator-ip-address Trigger: When an IP address requires an initial check for internal activity within Chronicle, often after external reputation checks.

Inputs Required#

  • ip_address: string - The IP address to look up.

    • Source Example: Alert field, output from other enrichment runbooks like rb_ip_get_gti_report.md.

  • hours_back (optional): integer - How many hours of historical data to consider for the summary. Defaults to 24 if not provided.

    • Source Example: Analyst preference, default value, or dynamically set based on alert age.

Execution Steps#

  1. Tool Selection:

    • Primary_Tool_MCP_Server: secops-mcp

    • Primary_Tool_Name: lookup_entity

  2. Parameter Mapping:

    • Map ip_address (Input) to MCP Tool parameter entity_value.

    • Map hours_back (Input, if provided, else use default) to MCP Tool parameter hours_back.

  3. Execute Tool: Call the lookup_entity tool.

    • AI Agent Note: Refer to rules-bank/mcp_tool_best_practices.md for guidance on lookup_entity.

  4. Data Transformation/Extraction:

    • The output is a textual summary. The AI agent may need to parse this text to extract specific details if required for subsequent automated decisions (e.g., number of related alerts, presence of critical assets in related entities).

Outputs Expected#

  • chronicle_entity_summary: string - The textual summary provided by the lookup_entity tool.

  • related_alerts_count (optional, if parsable by AI): integer - Number of alerts associated with the entity in the summary.

  • first_seen_in_window (optional, if parsable by AI): string/timestamp - First seen timestamp from the summary.

  • last_seen_in_window (optional, if parsable by AI): string/timestamp - Last seen timestamp from the summary.

  • output_status: string - [“Success”, “NoInfoFound”, “Failure”]

    • “NoInfoFound” indicates the tool ran successfully but found no information for the entity in the time window.

  • output_message: string (if Failure) - Details of the issue.

Decision Logic / Next Steps (If Applicable)#

  • IF output_status is “Success”:

    • Log chronicle_entity_summary to the case.

    • IF related_alerts_count > 0 (or summary indicates significant activity/alerts) THEN

      • Flag IP for “Further Internal Investigation - High Activity”.

      • Proceed to more detailed log analysis using rb_ip_search_network_traffic_chronicle.md or specific TTP hunting runbooks.

    • ELSE (low activity, no critical alerts mentioned in summary)

      • Flag IP as “Low Internal Activity Observed”.

      • May still proceed to rb_ip_search_network_traffic_chronicle.md for due diligence if external reputation was medium/high.

  • IF output_status is “NoInfoFound”:

    • Log “No activity found for IP {ip_address} in Chronicle for the last {hours_back} hours.”

    • Decision on next steps depends heavily on external reputation findings. If external reputation is high risk, absence of internal logs might be suspicious in itself (e.g., new C2) or indicate logging gaps.

  • ELSE (output_status is “Failure”):

    • Log error: output_message.

    • Escalate to human analyst: “Failed to lookup IP {ip_address} in Chronicle.”

AI Agent Execution Notes#

  • The default hours_back is 24. For older incidents or broader context, this may need to be explicitly set to a larger value (e.g., 168 for 7 days).

  • AI agents performing NLP on chronicle_entity_summary should look for keywords like “alerts:”, “Related Entities:”, “First seen:”, “Last seen:”.

Metrics Collection Points#

  • Log execution time for this runbook.

  • Log output_status.

  • (Reference rules-bank/ai_performance_logging_requirements.md)

References#

  • rules-bank/mcp_tool_best_practices.md

  • rules-bank/indicator_handling_protocols.md

  • rules-bank/ai_performance_logging_requirements.md

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