/containing-active-breach

name: containing-active-breach
description: 'Executes containment strategies to stop active adversary operations and prevent lateral movement during a confirmed
  security breach. Implements short-term and long-term containment using network segmentation, endpoint isolation, credential
  revocation, and access control modifications. Activates for requests involving breach containment, lateral movement prevention,
  network isolation, active threat containment, or live incident response.

  '
domain: cybersecurity
subdomain: incident-response
tags:
- breach-containment
- lateral-movement
- network-isolation
- credential-revocation
- live-response
mitre_attack:
- T1021
- T1570
- T1210
- T1072
version: 1.0.0
author: mahipal
license: Apache-2.0
nist_csf:
- RS.MA-01
- RS.MA-02
- RS.AN-03
- RC.RP-01

Containing Active Breaches

When to Use

• A confirmed intrusion is in progress with an active adversary on the network
• Malware is spreading laterally across endpoints or servers
• A compromised account is being used for unauthorized access to systems
• Ransomware encryption has been detected and is actively propagating
• An attacker has established command-and-control communications from internal hosts

**Do not use** for post-incident cleanup when the adversary is no longer active; use eradication procedures instead.

Prerequisites

• Confirmed incident classification with P1 or P2 severity from triage
• EDR console access with host isolation capabilities (CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne)
• Network firewall and switch management access for segmentation
• Active Directory or identity provider administrative access for credential actions
• Pre-approved containment authority documented in the incident response plan
• Evidence preservation plan to avoid destroying forensic artifacts during containment

Workflow

Step 1: Assess Containment Scope

Before taking containment actions, map the full scope of compromise to avoid partial containment that alerts the adversary:

• Identify all confirmed compromised hosts via EDR telemetry and SIEM correlation
• Map lateral movement paths using authentication logs (Windows Event ID 4624 Type 3 and Type 10)
• Identify all compromised credentials (check for pass-the-hash, Kerberoasting, DCSync activity)
• Determine C2 channels (beacon intervals, domains, IPs, protocols)
• Assess whether the adversary has domain admin or equivalent privileges

Containment Scope Assessment:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Compromised Hosts:     5 (WKSTN-042, WKSTN-087, SRV-FILE01, SRV-DC02, WKSTN-103)
Compromised Accounts:  3 (jsmith, svc-backup, admin-tier0)
C2 Channels:           HTTPS beacon to 185.220.x.x every 60s ± 15% jitter
Lateral Movement:      PsExec via svc-backup, RDP via admin-tier0
Adversary Privilege:   Domain Admin (admin-tier0 compromised)
Data at Risk:          Finance share (\\SRV-FILE01\finance$) accessed

Step 2: Execute Short-Term Containment

Implement immediate actions to stop adversary operations without destroying evidence:

**Network Containment:**

• Isolate confirmed compromised endpoints via EDR network containment (maintains agent communication)
• Block C2 IP addresses and domains at perimeter firewall and internal DNS
• Implement microsegmentation rules to prevent communication between compromised hosts
• Sinkhole C2 domains at internal DNS to capture connection attempts from undiscovered implants

**Identity Containment:**

• Disable compromised user accounts in Active Directory (do not delete; preserve audit trail)
• Reset passwords for all compromised accounts
• Revoke active sessions and tokens (Azure AD: `Revoke-AzureADUserAllRefreshToken`)
• Disable the compromised service account and rotate its credentials
• If Domain Admin is compromised: double-reset the KRBTGT password (reset twice, 12 hours apart)

**Endpoint Containment:**

• Use EDR to terminate malicious processes on contained hosts
• Block known malicious hashes in EDR prevention policy
• Quarantine identified malware samples
• Disable remote services (WinRM, RDP, SMB) on critical servers not yet compromised

Step 3: Execute Long-Term Containment

Implement sustainable containment while the investigation continues:

• Create network ACLs isolating the compromised VLAN/subnet while allowing business-critical traffic
• Deploy temporary jump hosts for administrators to access contained systems for investigation
• Implement enhanced monitoring (full packet capture) on network segments adjacent to compromised hosts
• Enable advanced audit policies on all domain controllers (4768, 4769, 4771 for Kerberos attacks)
• Deploy canary tokens and honeypot accounts to detect adversary attempts to expand from containment

Step 4: Validate Containment Effectiveness

Confirm that containment measures have stopped adversary operations:

• Monitor for new C2 callbacks from any internal host to known adversary infrastructure
• Check for new lateral movement attempts (failed authentication from disabled accounts)
• Verify that contained hosts cannot reach the internet except through the EDR agent
• Confirm that compromised credentials produce authentication failures
• Review SIEM for any new alerts matching the adversary's known TTPs

Containment Validation Checklist:
[x] C2 beacon traffic ceased from all known compromised hosts
[x] Disabled accounts producing expected 4625 failure events (no new successes)
[x] Contained hosts unreachable via network scan from adjacent subnets
[x] No new hosts exhibiting IOCs from the initial compromise
[x] Honeypot account has not been accessed (adversary may be dormant)
[ ] Full packet capture running on finance VLAN (pending switch config)

Step 5: Preserve Evidence During Containment

Containment must not destroy forensic evidence:

• Capture memory dumps from compromised hosts before any remediation (use WinPmem or Magnet RAM Capture)
• Collect volatile data: running processes, networ