Free Tools That Can Be Used
Essential Free Tools for Incident Response
Incident response often demands swift action and precise analysis. Below is a curated list of free tools tailored for different phases of incident response. These tools provide deep insights into processes, logs, and user activities, enhancing the investigation's speed and accuracy.
1. Process Analysis
Tool: Process Hacker Purpose: Comprehensive process management and analysis. Use Case:
Identify suspicious processes with abnormal behavior (e.g., powershell.exe spawned by excel.exe).
Analyze process attributes like parent-child relationships, loaded modules, and network connections. Key Features:
Real-time system monitoring.
Advanced tree view for process hierarchy.
2. Event Log Analysis
Tool: FullEventLogView Purpose: Simplifies Windows event log analysis. Use Case:
Consolidate event logs to quickly filter and analyze events during a specific attack window.
Focus on critical event IDs (e.g., 4624 for logins, 4625 for failed logins). Key Features:
View logs from multiple sources in a single interface.
Export filtered logs for deeper analysis.
3. Persistence Analysis
Tool: Autoruns (Microsoft Sysinternals) Purpose: Detect programs configured to run automatically at system startup. Use Case:
Identify and analyze persistence mechanisms such as startup scripts, scheduled tasks, and registry entries.
Detect unauthorized or malicious startup entries. Key Features:
Comprehensive view of all auto-start locations.
Filters to highlight unsigned or suspicious entries.
4. User Activity Analysis
Tool: LastActivityView Purpose: Displays a detailed timeline of user actions on a system. Use Case:
Analyze system activity during or after an attack.
Identify key user actions, such as file accesses, application executions, or shutdown events. Key Features:
Aggregates data from logs, registry, and system events.
Provides timestamps for precise activity correlation.
5. Web Activity Analysis
Tool: BrowsingHistoryView Purpose: Consolidates web browser history across multiple browsers. Use Case:
Investigate phishing attacks by reviewing malicious URLs visited.
Track user browsing activity leading up to or following a compromise. Key Features:
Supports all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.).
Exports detailed browsing data for reporting.
Additional Notes:
Custom Tools: Tailor scripts or small utilities to automate repetitive tasks, such as log parsing or network analysis.
Alternative Tools: For each function, consider exploring equivalent tools to find those best suited to your environment. For instance:
Process Explorer (as an alternative to Process Hacker).
Splunk Free or ELK Stack for centralized log analysis.
Benefits of Using These Tools:
Cost-Effective: Free but powerful, they rival many commercial solutions.
Ease of Use: Intuitive interfaces allow quick adoption, even in high-pressure situations.
Comprehensive Coverage: Address all key aspects of incident response, from initial detection to post-incident analysis.
By incorporating these tools into your incident response toolkit, you can significantly enhance your team’s ability to detect, analyze, and remediate security incidents efficiently.
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