Exploitation Surface Containment

1. Prerequisites

• Confirmed exploitation activity
• Completion of exploitation analysis
• Access to affected systems
• Access to firewall administration
• Access to cloud administration
• Access to vulnerability management platform
• Approval for containment actions where required

2. Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Identify Exploited Assets

   • Confirm affected systems.
   • Document exploitation vector.

2. Identify Exposure Path

   • Determine:
     • Internet-facing services
     • Vulnerable applications
     • Misconfigurations
   • Document findings.

3. Restrict External Access

   • Restrict:
     • Internet exposure
     • Public access
     • Unnecessary network paths
   • Validate restrictions.

4. Disable Vulnerable Services

   • Disable:
     • Vulnerable services
     • Affected applications
     • Exposed interfaces
   • Document actions.

5. Apply Temporary Mitigations

   • Implement:
     • Firewall rules
     • WAF rules
     • Network restrictions
     • Access controls
   • Validate deployment.

6. Restrict Administrative Access

   • Limit:
     • Administrative access
     • Remote management access
     • Third-party access
   • Document changes.

7. Monitor for Continued Activity

   • Review:
     • Exploitation attempts
     • Access attempts
     • Network activity
   • Escalate continued activity.

8. Validate Containment

   • Confirm:
     • Exposure paths removed
     • Vulnerable services restricted
     • Exploitation activity ceased
   • Document validation.

9. Document Containment Actions

   • Record:
     • Systems affected
     • Controls implemented
     • Validation results
   • Preserve evidence.

10. Escalate and Hand Off

    • Provide containment status to the Incident Commander.
    • Coordinate recovery and remediation activities.
    • Update the incident record.

3. Post-Action

• Ensure all containment actions are documented.
• Preserve evidence supporting containment.
• Record outstanding remediation actions.
• Participate in recovery activities.

Contributor

Vishal Thakur GitHub: https://github.com/malienist

Contributed to the Arcana Incident Response Documentation Framework.