Expel Workbench

LAST UPDATED: 10/07/2024

Overview

Expel Workbench is a security operations platform that provides managed detection and response (MDR) services. It helps cybersecurity teams by automating threat detection, alert analysis, and response actions. The platform integrates with various security tools, reducing alert fatigue by prioritizing significant alerts and filtering out false positives.

D3 SOAR is providing REST operations to function with Expel Workbench. Expel Workbench is available for use in:

D3 SOAR	V16.8+
Category	SIEM & XDR
Deployment Options	Option II, Option IV

Connection

To connect to Expel Workbench from D3 SOAR, follow this part to collect the required information below:

Parameter	Description	Example
Server URL	The API server URL for the API connection at domain level.	https://workbench.expel.io
API Key	The API Key you generated on Organization Settings > Service Accounts (only users with API access can view this page and generate API keys - contact sales to upgrade).	*****
API Version	The API version to use for the connection.	v2

Configuring D3 SOAR to Work with Expel Workbench

Log in to D3 SOAR.
Find the Expel Workbench integration.
1. Navigate to Configuration on the top header menu.
2. Click on the Integration icon on the left sidebar.
3. Type Expel Workbench in the search box to find the integration, then click it to select it.
4. Click + Connection, on the right side of the Connections section. A new connection window will appear.
Configure the following fields to create a connection to Expel Workbench.
1. Connection Name: The desired name for the connection.
2. Site: Specifies the site to use the integration connection. Use the drop-down menu to select the site. The Share to Internal Sites option enables all sites defined as internal sites to use the connection. Selecting a specific site will only enable that site to use the connection.
3. Recipient site for events from connections Shared to Internal Sites: This field appears if you selected Share to Internal Sites for Site to let you select the internal site to deploy the integration connection.
4. Agent Name (Optional): Specifies the proxy agent required to build the connection. Use the dropdown menu to select the proxy agent from a list of previously configured proxy agents.
5. Description (Optional): Add your desired description for the connection.
6. Tenant (Optional): When configuring the connection from a master tenant site, you have the option to choose the specific tenant sites you want to share the connection with. Once you enable this setting, you can filter and select the desired tenant sites from the dropdowns to share the connection.
7. Configure User Permissions: Defines which users have access to the connection.
8. Active: Check the checkbox to ensure the connection is available for use.
9. System: This section contains the parameters defined specifically for the integration. These parameters must be configured to create the integration connection.
  1. Input the Server URL.
  2. Copy the API Key from the Expel Workbench platform.
  3. Input the API Version. The default value is v4.
10. Enable Password Vault: An optional feature that allows users to take the stored credentials from their own password vault. Refer to the password vault connection guide if needed.
11. Connection Health Check: Updates the connection status you have created. A connection health check is done by scheduling the Test Connection command of this integration. This can only be done when the connection is active.
  To set up a connection health check, check the Connection Health Check tick box. You can customize the interval (minutes) for scheduling the health check. An email notification can be set up after a specified number of failed connection attempts.
Test the connection.
1. Click Test Connection to verify the account credentials and network connection. If the Test Connection Passed alert window appears, the test connection is successful. You will see Passed with a green check mark appear beside the Test Connection button. If the test connection fails, check your connection parameters and try again.
2. Click OK to close the alert window.
3. Click + Add to create and add the configured connection.

Commands

Expel Workbench includes the following executable commands for users to set up schedules or create playbook workflows. With the Test Command, you can execute these commands independently for playbook troubleshooting.

Integration API Note

For more information about the Expel Workbench API, refer to the Expel Workbench API reference.

Note for Time-related parameters

The input format of time-related parameters may vary based on your account settings. As a result, the sample data provided in our commands is different from what you see. To set your preferred time format, follow these steps:

Navigate to Configuration > Application Settings. Select Date/Time Format.
Choose your desired date and time format, then click on the Save button.

After that, you will be able to view your preferred time format when configuring the DateTime input parameters for commands.

Fetch Event

Ingests Expel Workbench alerts or investigations as events based on the specified parameters. The results are sorted by the updated_at timestamp in descending order.

Input

Input Parameter	Required/Optional	Description	Example
Event Type	Optional	The event type to be ingested. By default, the event type is Alert.	Investigation
Start Time	Optional	The alerts or investigations updated after the Start Time, in UTC, will be returned. By default, the value is 24 hours prior to the end time.	2024-08-06 18:00:00
End Time	Optional	The alerts or investigations updated before the End Time, in UTC, will be returned. By default, the value is the current time.	2024-08-06 18:59:59
Number of Event(s) Fetched	Optional	The number of the most recently updated events to retrieve. By default, the value is 50. The allowable range is an integer between 1 and 100. To ingest all events that meet the Search Condition, enter -1.	50
Search Condition	Optional	Filters workbench alerts. Refer to Workbench API for details.	filter[status]=IN_PROGRESS&filter[expel_severity]=CRITICAL
Includes	Optional	The relationship records to include in the alert or investigation response data, such as evidence, investigation, vendor_alerts, etc. For available relationships, refer to the following links: Expel Alerts Expel Investigations This parameter can be resource intensive, and the records returned by the Includes parameter cannot be paginated – it is all-or-nothing.	JSON `[ "evidence" ]`

Output

Return Data

Indicates one of the possible command execution states: Successful, Successful with No Event Data or Failed.

The Failed state can be triggered by any of the following errors:

A connection issue with the integration

The API returned an error message

No response from the API

You can view more details about an error in the Error tab.

Return Data can be passed down directly to a subsequent command or used to create conditional tasks in playbooks.

SAMPLE DATA

CODE

Successful

Raw Data

The primary response data from the API request.

SAMPLE DATA FOR ALERTS

JSON

{
    "links": {
        "self": "https://*****/*****"
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "type": "expel_alerts",
            "id": "*****",
            "attributes": {
                "activity_first_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "activity_last_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "alert_type": "ENDPOINT",
                "close_comment": "string",
                "close_reason": "FALSE_POSITIVE",
                "created_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "cust_disp_alerts_in_critical_incidents_count": 100,
                "cust_disp_alerts_in_incidents_count": 100,
                "cust_disp_alerts_in_investigations_count": 100,
                "cust_disp_closed_alerts_count": 100,
                "cust_disp_disposed_alerts_count": 100,
                "disposition_alerts_in_critical_incidents_count": 100,
                "disposition_alerts_in_incidents_count": 100,
                "disposition_alerts_in_investigations_count": 100,
                "disposition_closed_alerts_count": 100,
                "disposition_disposed_alerts_count": 100,
                "expel_alert_time": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "expel_alias_name": "string",
                "expel_message": "string",
                "expel_name": "string",
                "expel_severity": "CRITICAL",
                "expel_signature_id": "string",
                "expel_version": "string",
                "git_rule_url": "https://*****.***",
                "hunt_finding_data": {},
                "investigative_action_count": 100,
                "is_auto_add": true,
                "is_viewed_by_assignable_expel_user": true,
                "rapid_triage_priority": "string",
                "ref_event_id": "string",
                "status": "string",
                "status_updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "triggered_by_signal_guids": [],
                "tuning_requested": true,
                "updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "vendor_alert_count": 100,
                "vendor_disp_alerts_in_critical_incidents_count": 100,
                "vendor_disp_alerts_in_incidents_count": 100,
                "vendor_disp_alerts_in_investigations_count": 100,
                "vendor_disp_closed_alerts_count": 100,
                "vendor_disp_disposed_alerts_count": 100
            }
        }
    ]
}

SAMPLE DATA FOR INVESTIGATIONS

JSON

{
    "links": {
        "self": "https://*****/*****"
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "eventType": "Investigation",
            "type": "investigations",
            "id": "*****",
            "attributes": {
                "analyst_severity": "CRITICAL",
                "attack_lifecycle": "INITIAL_RECON",
                "attack_timing": "HISTORICAL",
                "attack_vector": "DRIVE_BY",
                "close_comment": "string",
                "created_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "critical_comment": "string",
                "decision": "FALSE_POSITIVE",
                "default_plugin_slug": "string",
                "deleted_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "detection_type": "UNKNOWN",
                "has_hunting_status": true,
                "initial_attack_vector": "string",
                "is_downgrade": true,
                "is_incident": true,
                "is_incident_status_updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "is_soc_support_required": true,
                "is_surge": true,
                "last_published_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "last_published_value": "string",
                "lead_description": "string",
                "malware_family": "string",
                "next_steps": "string",
                "open_reason": "ACCESS_KEYS",
                "open_summary": "string",
                "review_requested_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "short_link": "string",
                "source_reason": "HUNTING",
                "status_updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                "threat_type": "TARGETED",
                "title": "string",
                "updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Key Fields

Common cyber security indicators such as unique IDs, file hash values, CVE numbers, IP addresses, etc., will be extracted from Raw Data as Key Fields.

The system stores these key fields in the path $.[playbookTask].outputData. You can use these key-value pairs as data points for playbook task inputs.

SAMPLE DATA

JSON

{
  "AlertIDs": ["*****"]
}

Result

Provides a brief summary of outputs in an HTML formatted table.

SAMPLE DATA

Start Time (UTC)	2024-10-02T17:54:13Z
End Time (UTC)	2024-10-03T17:54:13Z
Events Count	1

Fetch Event Field Mapping

Fetch Event commands require event field mapping. Field mapping plays a key role for data normalization within the event pipeline. Field mapping converts the original data fields from the different providers to standardized D3 fields as defined by the D3 Model. Refer to Event and Incident Intake Field Mapping for details.

To customize field mapping, click + Add Field and add the custom field of your choice. You can also remove built-in field mappings by clicking x. Note that two underscore characters will automatically prefix the defined Field Name as the System Name for a custom field mapping. Additionally, if an input Field Name contains any spaces, they will automatically be replaced with underscores for the corresponding System Name.

As a system integration, the Expel Workbench integration has some pre-configured field mappings for default field mapping.

Default Event Source
The Default Event Source is the default set of field mappings that are applied when this fetch event command is executed. For out-of-the-box integrations, you will find a set of field mapping provided by the system. Default event source provides field mappings for common fields from fetched events. The default event source has a "Main Event JSON Path" (i.e. $.data) that is used to extract a batch of events from the response raw data. Click Edit Main JSON Path to view the "Main Event JSON Path".
- Main Event JSON Path: $.data
  The Main Event JSON Path determines the root path where the system starts parsing raw response data into D3 event data. The JSON path begins with $, representing the root element. The path is formed by appending a sequence of child elements to $, each separated by a dot (.). Square brackets with nested quotation marks ([‘...’]) should be used to separate child elements in JSON arrays.
  For example, the root node of a JSON Path is data. The child node denoting the Alert Name field would be .attributes.expel_name. Putting it together, the JSON Path expression to extract the Alert Name is $.data.attributes.expel_name.

The pre-configured field mappings are detailed below:

Field Name	Source Field
Alert Name	.attributes.expel_name
Alert type	.attributes.alert_type
Document ID	.id
Event Type	.type
Start Time	.attributes.expel_alert_time
Description	.attributes.expel_message
Severity	.attributes.expel_severity
Status	.attributes.status

Error Handling

If the Return Data displays Failed, an Error tab will appear in the Test Result window.

The error tab contains the details responded from D3 SOAR or third-party API calls, including Failure Indicator, Status Code, and Message. This can help you locate the root cause of a command failure.

Parts in Error	Description	Example
Failure Indicator	Indicates the command failure that happened at a specific input and/or API call.	Add Channel Member failed.
Status Code	The response code issued by the third-party API server or the D3 SOAR system that can be used to locate the corresponding error category. For example, if the returned status code is 401, the selected connection is unauthorized to run the command. The user or system support would need to check the permission setting in the Expel Workbench portal. Refer to the HTTP Status Code Registry for details.	Status Code: 401.
Message	The raw data or captured key error message from the integration API server about the API request failure.	Message: Unauthorized.

Error Sample Data

Fetch Event failed.

Status Code: 401.

Message: Unauthorized.

Update Alerts

Updates the specified workbench alerts.

READER NOTE

Alert IDs is a required parameter to run this command.

Run the Fetch Event command to obtain the Alert IDs. Alert IDs can be found in the raw data at the path $.data[*].id.

Input

Input Parameter	Required/Optional	Description	Example
Alert IDs	Required	The IDs of Expel Workbench alerts to update. Alert ID can be obtained using the Fetch Event command with the Alert event type.	JSON `[ "*****" ]`
Attributes	Required	The alert attribute key value pairs to update.	JSON `{ "expel_severity": "CRITICAL" }`
Relationships	Required	The relationships used to overwrite existing relationships of the specified alerts.	JSON `{ "vendor_alerts": { "data": [ { "id": "*****", "type": "vendor_alerts" } ] } }`
Includes	Optional	The relationship records to include in the alert response data, such as evidence, investigation, vendor_alerts, etc. For available relationships, refer to Expel Alerts. This parameter can be resource intensive, and the records returned by the Includes parameter cannot be paginated – it is all-or-nothing.	JSON `[ "vendor_alerts" ]`

Output

Return Data

Indicates one of the possible command execution states: Successful, Partially Successful, or Failed.

The Partially Successful state only occurs when a command’s input accepts an array of items (e.g. an array of IP addresses) and one or more items within the array return an error from the API request.

The Failed state can be triggered by any of the following errors:

A connection issue with the integration

The API returned an error message

No response from the API

You can view more details about an error in the Error tab.

Return Data can be passed down directly to a subsequent command or used to create conditional tasks in playbooks.

SAMPLE DATA

CODE

Successful

Raw Data

The primary response data from the API request.

SAMPLE DATA

JSON

{
    "Results": [
        {
            "data": {
                "type": "expel_alerts",
                "id": "*****",
                "attributes": {
                    "activity_first_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "activity_last_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "alert_type": "ENDPOINT",
                    "close_comment": "string",
                    "close_reason": "FALSE_POSITIVE",
                    "created_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "cust_disp_alerts_in_critical_incidents_count": 100,
                    "cust_disp_alerts_in_incidents_count": 100,
                    "cust_disp_alerts_in_investigations_count": 100,
                    "cust_disp_closed_alerts_count": 100,
                    "cust_disp_disposed_alerts_count": 100,
                    "disposition_alerts_in_critical_incidents_count": 100,
                    "disposition_alerts_in_incidents_count": 100,
                    "disposition_alerts_in_investigations_count": 100,
                    "disposition_closed_alerts_count": 100,
                    "disposition_disposed_alerts_count": 100,
                    "expel_alert_time": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "expel_alias_name": "string",
                    "expel_message": "string",
                    "expel_name": "string",
                    "expel_severity": "CRITICAL",
                    "expel_signature_id": "string",
                    "expel_version": "string",
                    "git_rule_url": "https://*****.***",
                    "hunt_finding_data": {},
                    "investigative_action_count": 100,
                    "is_auto_add": true,
                    "is_viewed_by_assignable_expel_user": true,
                    "rapid_triage_priority": "string",
                    "ref_event_id": "string",
                    "status": "string",
                    "status_updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "triggered_by_signal_guids": [],
                    "tuning_requested": true,
                    "updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "vendor_alert_count": 100,
                    "vendor_disp_alerts_in_critical_incidents_count": 100,
                    "vendor_disp_alerts_in_incidents_count": 100,
                    "vendor_disp_alerts_in_investigations_count": 100,
                    "vendor_disp_closed_alerts_count": 100,
                    "vendor_disp_disposed_alerts_count": 100
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Key Fields

Common cyber security indicators such as unique IDs, file hash values, CVE numbers, IP addresses, etc., will be extracted from Raw Data as Key Fields.

The system stores these key fields in the path $.[playbookTask].outputData. You can use these key-value pairs as data points for playbook task inputs.

SAMPLE DATA

JSON

{
  "AlertIDs": ["*****"]
}

Result

Provides a brief summary of outputs in an HTML formatted table.

SAMPLE DATA

Alerts Count

1

Error Handling

If the Return Data displays Partially Successful or Failed, an Error tab will appear in the Test Result window.

The error tab contains the details responded from D3 SOAR or third-party API calls, including Failure Indicator, Status Code, and Message. This can help you locate the root cause of a command failure.

Parts in Error	Description	Example
Failure Indicator	Indicates the command failure that happened at a specific input and/or API call.	Fetch Event failed.
Status Code	The response code issued by the third-party API server or the D3 SOAR system that can be used to locate the corresponding error category. For example, if the returned status code is 401, the selected connection is unauthorized to run the command. The user or system support would need to check the permission setting in the Expel Workbench portal. Refer to the HTTP Status Code Registry for details.	Status Code: 400.
Message	The raw data or captured key error message from the integration API server about the API request failure.	Message: Bad Request.

Error Sample Data

Add Channel Member failed.

Status Code: 400.

Message: Bad Request.

Update Investigations

Updates the specified investigations.

READER NOTE

Investigation IDs is a required parameter to run this command.

Run the Fetch Event command to obtain the Investigation IDs. Investigation IDs can be found in the raw data at the path $.data[*].id.

Input

Input Parameter	Required/Optional	Description	Example
Investigation IDs	Required	The IDs of Expel Workbench investigations to update. Investigation ID can be obtained using the Fetch Event command with the Investigation event type.	JSON `[ "*****" ]`
Attributes	Required	The key-value pairs of investigation attributes to update.	JSON `{ "title": "Sample Investigation" }`
Relationships	Required	The relationships used to overwrite existing relationships of the specified investigations.	JSON `{ "expel_alerts": { "data": [ { "id": "*****", "type": "expel_alerts" } ] } }`
Includes	Optional	The relationship records to include in the alert or investigation response data, such as evidence, investigation, vendor_alerts, etc. For available relationships, refer to Expel Investigations. This parameter can be resource intensive, and the records returned by the Includes parameter cannot be paginated – it is all-or-nothing.	JSON `[ "expel_alerts" ]`

Output

Return Data

Indicates one of the possible command execution states: Successful, Partially Successful, or Failed.

The Partially Successful state only occurs when a command’s input accepts an array of items (e.g. an array of IP addresses) and one or more items within the array return an error from the API request.

The Failed state can be triggered by any of the following errors:

A connection issue with the integration

The API returned an error message

No response from the API

You can view more details about an error in the Error tab.

Return Data can be passed down directly to a subsequent command or used to create conditional tasks in playbooks.

SAMPLE DATA

CODE

Successful

Raw Data

The primary response data from the API request.

SAMPLE DATA

JSON

{
    "Results": [
        {
            "data": {
                "type": "investigations",
                "id": "*****",
                "attributes": {
                    "analyst_severity": "CRITICAL",
                    "attack_lifecycle": "INITIAL_RECON",
                    "attack_timing": "HISTORICAL",
                    "attack_vector": "DRIVE_BY",
                    "close_comment": "string",
                    "created_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "critical_comment": "string",
                    "decision": "FALSE_POSITIVE",
                    "default_plugin_slug": "string",
                    "deleted_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "detection_type": "UNKNOWN",
                    "has_hunting_status": true,
                    "initial_attack_vector": "string",
                    "is_downgrade": true,
                    "is_incident": true,
                    "is_incident_status_updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "is_soc_support_required": true,
                    "is_surge": true,
                    "last_published_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "last_published_value": "string",
                    "lead_description": "string",
                    "malware_family": "string",
                    "next_steps": "string",
                    "open_reason": "ACCESS_KEYS",
                    "open_summary": "string",
                    "review_requested_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "short_link": "string",
                    "source_reason": "HUNTING",
                    "status_updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00",
                    "threat_type": "TARGETED",
                    "title": "Sample Investigation",
                    "updated_at": "2019-01-15T15:35:00-05:00"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Key Fields

Common cyber security indicators such as unique IDs, file hash values, CVE numbers, IP addresses, etc., will be extracted from Raw Data as Key Fields.

The system stores these key fields in the path $.[playbookTask].outputData. You can use these key-value pairs as data points for playbook task inputs.

SAMPLE DATA

JSON

{
  "AlertIDs": ["*****"]
}

Result

Provides a brief summary of outputs in an HTML formatted table.

SAMPLE DATA

Investigation Count

1

Error Handling

If the Return Data displays Partially Successful or Failed, an Error tab will appear in the Test Result window.

The error tab contains the details responded from D3 SOAR or third-party API calls, including Failure Indicator, Status Code, and Message. This can help you locate the root cause of a command failure.

Parts in Error	Description	Example
Failure Indicator	Indicates the command failure that happened at a specific input and/or API call.	Update Investigations failed.
Status Code	The response code issued by the third-party API server or the D3 SOAR system that can be used to locate the corresponding error category. For example, if the returned status code is 401, the selected connection is unauthorized to run the command. The user or system support would need to check the permission setting in the Expel Workbench portal. Refer to the HTTP Status Code Registry for details.	Status Code: 400.
Message	The raw data or captured key error message from the integration API server about the API request failure.	Message: The value for parameter (Attributes) is invalid.

Error Sample Data

Update Investigations failed.

Status Code: 400.

Message: The value for parameter (Attributes) is invalid.

Test Connection

Performs a health check on an integration connection. Users can schedule a periodic health check by selecting Connection Health Check when editing an integration connection.

Input

N/A

Output

Return Data

Indicates one of the possible command execution states: Successful or Failed.

The Failed state can be triggered by any of the following errors:

A connection issue with the integration

The API returned an error message

No response from the API

You can view more details about an error in the Error tab.

Return Data can be passed down directly to a subsequent command or used to create conditional tasks in playbooks.

SAMPLE DATA

CODE

Successful

Error Handling

If the Return Data displays Failed, an Error tab will appear in the Test Result window.

The error tab contains the details responded from D3 SOAR or third-party API calls, including Failure Indicator, Status Code, and Message. This can help you locate the root cause of a command failure.

Parts in Error	Description	Example
Failure Indicator	Indicates the command failure that happened at a specific input and/or API call.	Test Connection failed. Failed to check the connector.
Status Code	The response code issued by the third-party API server or the D3 SOAR system that can be used to locate the corresponding error category. For example, if the returned status code is 401, the selected connection is unauthorized to run the command. The user or system support would need to check the permission setting in the Expel Workbench portal. Refer to the HTTP Status Code Registry for details.	Status Code: 400.
Message	The raw data or captured key error message from the integration API server about the API request failure.	Message: Server URL is not valid in format.

Error Sample Data

Test Connection failed. Failed to check the connector.

Status Code: 400.

Message: You must have a valid Support account to call this API