implementing-soar-playbook-for-phishing

name	implementing-soar-playbook-for-phishing
description	Automates phishing incident response by calling the Splunk SOAR (Phantom) REST API to create containers, attach artifacts (emails, URLs, attachments), and trigger response playbooks. Use when building or wiring up a Splunk SOAR phishing playbook, ingesting a suspected phishing report into SOAR, or automating containment and triage for phishing incidents.
domain	cybersecurity
subdomain	security-operations
tags	["soar","splunk-phantom","phishing","incident-response"]
version	1.0
author	mahipal
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["DE.CM-01","RS.MA-01","GV.OV-01","DE.AE-02"]
mitre_attack	["T1078","T1190","T1059","T1566","T1598"]
mitre_f3	{"version":"1.1","tactics":["reconnaissance","resource-development","initial-access","stealth"],"techniques":[{"id":"T1598","name":"Phishing for Information","tactic":"reconnaissance","source":"attack"},{"id":"T1660","name":"Phishing","tactic":"initial-access","source":"attack"},{"id":"T1672","name":"Email Spoofing","tactic":"stealth","source":"attack"},{"id":"F1020.002","name":"Create Fake Materials: Fake Website","tactic":"resource-development","source":"f3"},{"id":"F1032","name":"Impersonate Official","tactic":"initial-access","source":"f3"}]}

Implementing SOAR Playbook for Phishing

Overview

This skill implements a phishing incident response workflow using the Splunk SOAR (formerly Phantom) REST API. When a suspected phishing email is reported, the agent parses email headers and body, creates a SOAR container representing the incident, attaches artifacts containing indicators of compromise (sender address, URLs, IP addresses, file hashes), triggers an automated investigation playbook, and polls for action results.

Splunk SOAR orchestrates and automates security operations through playbooks that chain together investigative and response actions. The REST API at /rest/container, /rest/artifact, and /rest/playbook_run enables programmatic incident creation and automation triggering from external tools, email gateways, and SIEM alerts.

When to Use

• When deploying or configuring implementing soar playbook for phishing capabilities in your environment
• When establishing security controls aligned to compliance requirements
• When building or improving security architecture for this domain
• When conducting security assessments that require this implementation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or later with requests and email modules
• Splunk SOAR instance (Cloud or On-Premises) with REST API access
• SOAR API token with permissions to create containers and trigger playbooks
• Network connectivity to SOAR instance on port 443
• A configured phishing investigation playbook in SOAR

Steps

1. Parse the phishing email: Read the email file (.eml format) and extract headers including From, To, Subject, Reply-To, Return-Path, Received, Message-ID, X-Mailer, and authentication results (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Extract URLs and IP addresses from the email body.

2. Authenticate to SOAR REST API: Use the API token in the ph-auth-token header to authenticate all REST API requests to the SOAR instance.

3. Create a container: POST to /rest/container with the incident label, name, description, severity, and status. The container represents the phishing incident and receives a container ID in the response.

4. Add email header artifacts: POST to /rest/artifact with container_id and CEF (Common Event Format) fields containing sender address (fromAddress), recipient (toAddress), subject, originating IP (), and Message-ID. Set to False for all but the last artifact.