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Multi-Cloud Security Incident Response Playbook: AWS, Azure & GCP Unified Triage Manual

A practical, battle-tested cloud forensic triage manual designed for SOC engineers and incident responders managing heterogeneous multi-cloud deployments across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Includes step-by-step containment scripts, forensic snapshot capture commands, log preservation checklists, and CERT-In 6-hour statutory reporting workflows.

By BlueCiphr Threat Research Desk • Lead CEH & PenTest+ Auditors

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[Initial Triage (0-15 Min)] Confirm alert validity; identify impacted cloud provider (AWS/Azure/GCP), account ID, and affected resources.

Mandate: CERT-In Incident Triage

[Initial Triage (0-15 Min)] Attach temporary DenyAll inline policy to compromised IAM user or service principal to kill active sessions.

Mandate: Containment SLA

[Initial Triage (0-15 Min)] Invalidate AWS STS temporary sessions issued prior to compromise timestamp using RevokeOlderSessions policy.

Mandate: Session Revocation

[Forensic Preservation] Take immediate EBS/Managed Disk snapshot of impacted VMs; apply immutable tag lock (InvestigationLock=True).

Mandate: Evidence Preservation

[Forensic Preservation] Isolate virtual machine by attaching a dedicated Quarantine Security Group (0 inbound, 0 outbound traffic).

Mandate: Network Isolation

[Forensic Preservation] Capture volatile volatile memory (RAM) dump via AWS SSM or cloud forensic automation before halting compute.

Mandate: Volatile Artifact Forensics

[Attack Path Scoping] Query CloudTrail / Azure Activity Logs / GCP Audit Logs for all API calls executed by compromised identity during past 90 days.

Mandate: CERT-In 180-Day Log Search

[Attack Path Scoping] Inspect S3/Blob storage access logs for unauthorized GetObject requests or abnormal data egress spikes.

Mandate: Data Exfiltration Scoping

[Eradication & Hardening] Rotate all database passwords, API keys, and application secrets that resided in the memory or filesystem of compromised workloads.

Mandate: Eradication Phase

[Eradication & Hardening] Rebuild compromised instances from clean, hardened golden AMIs/base images; verify CIS compliance.

Mandate: Clean Recovery

[Statutory Reporting] Compile CERT-In Incident Notification (Annexure-1) and submit to incident@cert-in.org.in within 6 hours.

Mandate: CERT-In 6-Hour SLA

[Post-Incident Governance] Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) and present findings to CISO and board risk committee within 14 days.

Mandate: SEBI / RBI Board Reporting

☁️ Cloud IR Playbook: Unified AWS, Azure & GCP Incident Containment Protocol

In public cloud environments, attacker dwell times can lead to millions of dollars in compute fraud (crypto-jacking) or catastrophic data exfiltration in minutes. Responders need standardized commands to neutralize threats across cloud platforms without breaking running production pipelines.

1. Instant IAM Compromise Containment Commands

AWS: Invalidate Active STS Credentials & Quarantine User

# 1. Attach explicit DenyAll inline policy
aws iam put-user-policy --user-name CompromisedUser --policy-name EmergencyDenyAll \
  --policy-document '{"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Deny","Action":"*","Resource":"*"}]}'

# 2. Invalidate all existing STS temporary credentials issued prior to current time
aws iam put-user-policy --user-name CompromisedUser --policy-name RevokeOlderSessions \
  --policy-document '{"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Deny","Action":"*","Resource":"*","Condition":{"DateLessThan":{"aws:TokenIssueTime":"2026-10-15T15:00:00Z"}}}]}'

# 3. Deactivate all active access keys
aws iam update-access-key --user-name CompromisedUser --access-key-id AKIAEXAMPLE --status Inactive

Azure: Revoke User Refresh Tokens & Reset Passwords

# Invalidate all active OAuth/SAML tokens via Azure CLI
az ad user update --id compromised@enterprise.com --account-enabled false
az rest --method post --uri "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/compromised@enterprise.com/revokeSignInSessions"

2. VM Isolation vs Termination Protocol

Never terminate an EC2/Azure VM during an ongoing investigation! Terminating the instance destroys volatile memory (RAM), open socket connections, running malware processes, and kernel ring buffer logs. Always follow the Forensic Isolation Sequence:

Step 1: Snapshot

Capture point-in-time EBS snapshot of all attached root & data volumes.

Step 2: Memory Dump

Trigger LiME memory acquisition via AWS SSM Run Command.

Step 3: SG Quarantine

Swap Security Groups to sg-quarantine-isolated (0 ingress, 0 egress).

Step 4: Evidence Transfer

Attach copy of snapshot to isolated Forensic Analysis Workstation.

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Multi-Cloud Security Incident Response Playbook: AWS, Azure & GCP Unified Triage Manual

Interactive Technical Checklist (12 Verification Checkpoints)

1. Instant IAM Compromise Containment Commands

2. VM Isolation vs Termination Protocol

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