Cybrary ForgeCYBRARY / FORGE
Curriculum
C-201·Cross-platform·45 min

One incident, three vocabularies Start this lab

The same identity-compromise incident has to be worked in three vendors' vocabularies. Move it through all three profiles and map every concept across them, from incident to container to case, without changing the engine underneath.

Mission brief · C-201

Tier 3 analyst on the incident response bench

Tier 3 — deep host and forensics
Business important
Track default

You are acting as

the break-glass IR account `svc-ir`, checked out of the vault for this incident — never the compromised identity

How you got here

The detection fired in the EDR console. You opened a live-response session from that detection, so your shell rides the EDR agent channel — containing the host will *not* cut you off, which is exactly why you contain from here rather than over SSH.

Your access

  • EDR console (detections + live response)

    Endpoint detection & response

    • Read the detection and process tree
    • Look up host criticality, owner and VIP flags
    • Open a live-response session on the host
    • Contain the host over the agent channel
    • Not yours: Disable user accounts (that's the identity team)
    • Not yours: Delete evidence
  • Live-response shell on the affected host

    Host shell session

    • Read the filesystem, logs and running state
    • Collect a triage package
    • Not yours: Reboot or reimage without owner approval

What's at stake

The affected host

Owner: The system's business owner, named on the asset record

Containing a host you haven't identified can stop revenue. Check criticality and owner before you isolate anything.

Rules of engagement

You may act alone

  • Investigate from the live-response session
  • Collect evidence and triage packages
  • Contain a standard-criticality host

Ask a human first

  • Containing a mission-critical host — asset owner and on-call manager first
  • Disabling a user identity — identity team, and HR/legal if it looks like an insider

Why this matters

Analysts change tools every few years. If your knowledge is a set of screen positions, it evaporates; if it is a set of concepts with three names each, it moves with you.

Concepts

One incident, three nouns

Incident, container, story-scoped record: same object, same responsibilities, different label. Translate deliberately and the second platform takes days rather than months.

Task, block, action

The unit of work has a different name and near-identical semantics everywhere: inputs bound at run time, a typed result, a risk classification.

Three path syntaxes, one idea

`${...}`, dotted datapaths and `<<...>>` all answer the same question — where did this value come from. The syntax is trivia; the provenance is the skill.

Objectives graded

  • Translate all canonical terms across profiles
  • Show identical end state from three surfaces
  • Explain which differences are cosmetic

Live walkthrough

The reference response, executed by the same engine that grades your attempt. Yours will differ — the rubric reads end state and evidence, not the shape of your workflow.

  1. 1.Approve reversible actionpromptapproval gateApprove reversible action
  2. 2.Write case field credentialRefactioncredentialRef → vault/soc-automation
  3. 3.Attach evidence: case/soar-c-201/evidenceactionThe learner attached at least one linkable piece of evidence to the case.
  4. 4.Write case field closureNoteactionclosureNote → written
  5. 5.Write case field vocabularyMappedactionvocabularyMapped → complete
  6. 6.Attach evidence: case/parity-reportactionThe learner showed the three profiles produced equivalent end state.

Gate approved — 100%

11 of 11 rubric rules hold.

Gate denied — 91%

Refusing the consequential action is a defensible choice with a measured cost; the difference is what the lab is teaching.

  • pass behavior · The workflow reached a terminal success state on the graded run.
  • pass safety · A reversible action passed through a human approval gate.
  • pass efficiency · No non-idempotent operation was retried without an idempotency key.
  • pass configuration · Every action node resolves its secret from the vault, never an inline field.
  • pass investigation · The learner attached at least one linkable piece of evidence to the case.
  • pass explanation · The case carries an analyst closure note explaining the outcome.
  • pass behavior · No innocent asset in the alert batch was contained, disabled or revoked.
  • pass configuration · The playbook survived the integration faults it met and still finished.
  • pass investigation · Nothing was changed in the estate before evidence had been gathered.
  • pass configuration · Every canonical term was mapped to all three vendor vocabularies.
  • pass investigation · The learner showed the three profiles produced equivalent end state.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

One identity-compromise intrusion, three consoles: same techniques, three sets of nouns.

TechniqueNameTactic
T1078Valid AccountsDefense Evasion
T1114.003Email Collection: Email Forwarding RuleCollection
T1021.001Remote Desktop ProtocolLateral Movement

What each rubric rule proves

  • The workflow reached a terminal success state on the graded run.

    behavior · weight 20

  • A reversible action passed through a human approval gate.

    safety · weight 15

  • No non-idempotent operation was retried without an idempotency key.

    efficiency · weight 10

  • Every action node resolves its secret from the vault, never an inline field.

    configuration · weight 10

  • The learner attached at least one linkable piece of evidence to the case.

    investigation · weight 10

  • The case carries an analyst closure note explaining the outcome.

    explanation · weight 10

  • No innocent asset in the alert batch was contained, disabled or revoked.

    behavior · weight 15

  • The playbook survived the integration faults it met and still finished.

    configuration · weight 15

  • Nothing was changed in the estate before evidence had been gathered.

    investigation · weight 10

  • Every canonical term was mapped to all three vendor vocabularies.

    configuration · weight 25 · T1078 Valid Accounts (Defense Evasion)

  • The learner showed the three profiles produced equivalent end state.

    investigation · weight 20 · T1114.003 Email Collection: Email Forwarding Rule (Collection)

Common mistakes

  • Learning menus instead of concepts.
  • Assuming a vendor word means something unique when it is a rename.
  • Missing the genuine differences — change control and path semantics really do vary.

Same idea, three vendors

Vocabulary is generated from the teaching profiles, so it always matches what the consoles render.

ConceptCortex ForgeSummit SOARStoryline
caseIncidentContainerCase
nodeTaskBlockAction
context-pathContext pathDatapathEvent path

Where does this value come from?

The same reference to an enrichment node's verdict, written three ways:

  • Cortex Forge: ${enrich-sender.verdict}
  • Summit SOAR: enrich-sender.verdict
  • Storyline: <<enrich-sender.verdict>>

The same concepts in shipping products

The consoles you practice in use teaching names. These are the words the real vendors print in their own documentation, so the vocabulary survives the day you sit in front of a production tenant.

ConceptCortex XSOARXSOAR 8.xSplunk SOARSplunk SOAR 6.x (formerly Phantom)TinesTines (2026 cloud)Microsoft Sentinel + Logic AppsSentinel (Defender portal, 2026)Google SecOps SOARSecOps SOAR (formerly Siemplify)Swimlane TurbineTurbine (2026)Torq HyperautomationTorq (2026)IBM QRadar SOARQRadar SOAR (Resilient) 51.xServiceNow Security OperationsSecOps (Flow Designer era)
caseIncidentContainerCaseIncidentCaseRecordCaseIncidentSecurity incident (SIR)
nodeTaskBlockActionAction / stepAction / stepActionStepFunction / scriptFlow action
context-pathContext path (${...})DatapathFormula (<<path.to.value>>)Expression (@{body('step')})Placeholder ([Entity.Identifier])Reference ($record.field)Expression ({{ .event.field }})Rule/script object (incident.properties)Data pill

How this rubric maps to production SOC work

Scores whether the response's end state — accounts, hosts, tickets, evidence — is correct independent of which product produced it.

  • Cortex XSOARPalo Alto Networks

    Same end state, expressed as incident fields and closed Work Plan tasks.

  • Splunk SOARSplunk (Cisco)

    Same end state, expressed as container status, artifacts and workbook phases.

  • TinesTines

    Same end state, expressed as case fields and closed case tasks.

  • Google SecOps SOARGoogle Cloud

    Same end state on the case wall, with entity enrichment attached.

What transfers

This lab is the transfer skill itself: build the mapping table once, and every future migration is a lookup.