How to Investigate Security Events Using CrowdStrike Falcon Incidents
From alert to root cause using Falcon telemetry, detections, and Real Time Response
CrowdStrike Falcon has become a gold standard in modern endpoint security—delivering behavioral detections, rich telemetry, and rapid response capabilities through a lightweight, cloud-native platform. But the real power of CrowdStrike isn’t just blocking malware—it’s enabling fast, accurate event investigation.
In this blog, we’ll walk through a practical, structured approach to investigating security events using CrowdStrike Falcon Incidents, including:
- How incidents are generated
- What telemetry matters most
- How to pivot using Process Graphs
- How to determine scope and impact
- How to validate findings and close out investigations
Whether you’re part of a SOC, an MSSP, or an IR team, this guide will help you take CrowdStrike investigations from reactive triage to high-confidence root-cause analysis.
- Understanding CrowdStrike Incidents
Before starting an investigation, it’s important to understand how CrowdStrike models threat activity.
A CrowdStrike Incident is a collection of:
- Detection(s) triggered by behavioral analysis
- Processes and sub-processes tied together in a storyline
- Hosts involved
- Indicators (hashes, domains, commands, etc.)
- Tactics & Techniques mapped to MITRE ATT&CK
- End-user and host context
CrowdStrike does not rely on static signatures. Instead, it detects malicious behaviors, often catching:
- Malware execution
- Fileless attacks
- PowerShell misuse
- Credential dumping
- Lateral movement
- Persistence artifacts
- Exploitation attempts
This means every incident contains behavior-rich telemetry, giving analysts strong visibility into what actually happened.
- Start With the Incident Dashboard
When an alert arrives, begin with the Incident Overview Page:
Look for:
- Severity & confidence level
- User & host involved
- MITRE tactics detected
- Exact time the indicators began
- How many detections this host/user generated recently
This forms your initial triage picture: Is this a one-off event? Part of a broader pattern? A potential intrusion?
- Dive Into the Process Graph (The Most Important Step)
CrowdStrike’s Process Graph is the centerpiece of any investigation.
It shows a complete visual storyline:
- Parent process
- Child processes
- Command line arguments
- Network connections
- Script engines (PowerShell, WScript)
- Persistence modifications
- File writes / registry keys
What to look for:
- Suspicious Parent-Child Relationships
Examples:
- winword.exe → powershell.exe
- excel.exe → cmd.exe
- svchost.exe spawning tools it normally shouldn’t
- explorer.exe spawning encoded scripts
- Logical anomalies
- Tools running from temp folders
- Unsigned binaries
- Rare or “never-before-seen” processes
- Encoded or obfuscated command lines
- Behavioral flags
CrowdStrike often displays:
- “Credential theft attempt”
- “Suspicious script execution”
- “Privilege escalation behavior”
- “Lateral movement pattern”
Many APT behaviors will show up here long before a SIEM alert fires.
- Review the Execution Details & Telemetry
For each detection, review:
Command Lines
Look for:
- Base64 encoding
- Hidden windows (-WindowStyle Hidden, -nop)
- Download cradles (Invoke-WebRequest, bitsadmin)
- LOLBins (mshta, regsvr32, wscript)
File Modifications
- New binaries dropped in suspicious paths
- Modified startup folders
- Unexpected DLL injections
Registry Modifications
Common persistence paths:
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
Network Activity
CrowdStrike shows:
- C2 IPs or domains
- TOR exit nodes
- Rare geolocations
- DNS tunneling patterns
Each data point helps paint the picture of the attacker’s intent.
- Scope the Incident: One Host or Many?
Next, determine blast radius.
Key questions:
✔ Is this activity isolated to one endpoint?
Search Falcon for:
- “Same hash on other hosts”
- Similar detections across the environment
- Persistence artifacts on multiple endpoints
✔ Is the user account compromised?
Review for:
- Impossible travel
- Excessive authentication failures
- MFA fatigue
- Privileged account usage anomalies
✔ Has lateral movement occurred?
Hunt for:
- WMI execution logs
- PsExec activity
- RDP logons outside business hours
CrowdStrike’s Threat Graph helps uncover lateral movement quickly.
- Take Action Using Real Time Response (RTR)
Once confirmed malicious, take action directly inside CrowdStrike:
Contain the host
Stops network communications—useful for malware or ransomware.
Kill the process tree
Terminate malicious activity safely.
Quarantine files
Remove scripts, binaries, or droppers.
Collect forensic artifacts
Such as:
- Memory dumps
- MFT logs
- Prefetch files
- Browser history
Run PowerShell commands via RTR
Helpful for:
- Persistence checks
- Dumping autoruns
- Reviewing lateral movement indicators
RTR significantly speeds up eradication.
- Validate the Root Cause
Before closing the incident, ensure you answer:
- How did it start? Email? Web exploit? USB? Lateral movement?
- What was the attacker’s objective? Recon? Persistence? Credential theft?
- Was persistence established? Scheduled task? Registry key? Service install?
- Was data accessed or exfiltrated? Look at network + file telemetry.
If root cause is unconfirmed, the risk remains.
- Document Findings & Improve Detection Logic
Good investigations refine your SOC’s future response by:
- Updating SIEM correlation logic
- Adding detections for similar behavior
- Updating SOAR playbooks
- Improving endpoint exception policies
- Training analysts
CrowdStrike’s MITRE mapping helps connect your incident to known adversary techniques, making gap analysis easier.
Final Thoughts: CrowdStrike Makes Event Investigation Faster & More Confident
CrowdStrike Falcon’s behavioral approach means:
- You don’t rely on IOCs
- You can trace full execution paths
- Storyline gives context other EDRs lack
- RTR lets you respond immediately
Need help investigating security events? Our team is here—contact us today.