Introduction

Automated Incident Response Playbook Approaches

In this lab, we will implement two types of automated incident response (IR) playbooks using AWS-native services. Each approach provides distinct advantages and trade-offs depending on the complexity and duration of the remediation tasks.

1. Lambda-based IR Playbook

This approach uses a single AWS Lambda function to execute remediation actions as soon as an incident is detected. It is the simplest and fastest method to deploy. However, it comes with an important limitation:

• Execution time is capped at 15 minutes, which means it cannot accommodate long-running tasks, such as waiting for an EBS snapshot to complete or performing detailed forensic collection.
• Best suited for immediate and lightweight actions, such as tagging, isolating the instance via security group changes, or sending alerts.

2. Step Functions-based IR Playbook

This method uses AWS Step Functions to orchestrate the incident response as a modular state machine, enabling a more flexible and robust IR process.

• Unlike Lambda, there is no strict execution timeout, allowing for complex, multi-step workflows that may span several minutes or even hours.
• Tasks can be broken into independent, manageable states, including parallel execution, retries, wait conditions, and failure handling logic.
• Ideal for scenarios requiring sequenced actions, such as taking snapshots, gathering forensic data, notifying multiple systems, and then terminating or quarantining the instance.

By comparing both approaches, this lab highlights how AWS automation tools can be tailored to meet different response needs from rapid reaction to comprehensive remediation pipelines.