CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR

What is Falcon Insight XDR?

Detection and response is the part of cybersecurity that only pays out when something has already gone wrong — and only if the events were recorded beforehand. What is really being bought is the ability to answer, after the fact, what ran on this machine and what it touched next.

Falcon Insight XDR is an Extended Detection & Response solution that provides:

• Visibility - full visibility of what’s happening on endpoints
• Detection - real-time threat detection
• Investigation - incident analysis tools
• Response - manual and automated responses

EDR vs XDR:

• EDR (Endpoint Detection & Response) - focus on endpoints
• XDR (Extended Detection & Response) - correlation with cloud, identity, network

Falcon Insight started as EDR, now offers full XDR capabilities.

How does Falcon Insight work?

1. Continuous Recording

Falcon Agent records all events on endpoint:

[Process] --> [File operations]
         --> [Network connections]
         --> [Registry changes]
         --> [Memory access]
         --> [DNS queries]
                |
                v
         [Threat Graph] --> [Analysis] --> [Detection]

Collected data:

• Process creation/termination
• File create/modify/delete
• Network connections (IP, port, protocol)
• Registry operations
• Loaded modules (DLLs)
• User context

2. Real-time Detection

Falcon detects threats in real-time:

Detection sources:

• On-sensor ML - local analysis
• Threat Graph - global correlation
• IOA (Indicators of Attack) - behavioral detection
• IOC (Indicators of Compromise) - known bad
• Custom IOA - custom rules

Example IOA:

IF process.name = "word.exe"
AND child_process.name = "powershell.exe"
AND network.connection = external
THEN alert("Suspicious Office macro")

3. Investigation Tools

Incident analysis tools:

Process Tree:

explorer.exe
  └── outlook.exe
        └── word.exe
              └── powershell.exe [MALICIOUS]
                    └── cmd.exe
                          └── certutil.exe -decode payload.txt

Timeline View:

• Chronological view of all events
• Filtering by type, process, user
• Export for further analysis

Threat Intelligence:

• Automatic IOC enrichment
• Adversary attribution
• Malware family identification

4. Response Actions

Real-time Response (RTR): Remote session on endpoint with full access:

• Process, service listing
• File system access
• Registry access
• Network connections
• Memory dump
• Script execution

Response actions:

• Kill process - terminate malicious process
• Quarantine file - malware isolation
• Network contain - network disconnection (host isolation)
• Delete file - malware removal
• Remediation scripts - automated fixes

XDR - Extended Detection

Falcon Insight XDR correlates data from multiple sources:

CrowdStrike Native

• Endpoints - Falcon Agent
• Cloud - Falcon Cloud Security
• Identity - Falcon Identity Protection
• Mobile - Falcon for Mobile

Third-party Integrations

• Network - Fortinet, Cisco
• Email - Microsoft 365, Google Workspace
• Cloud - AWS, Azure, GCP
• SIEM - Splunk, QRadar, Sentinel

Cross-domain correlation:

[Email: Phishing received] + [Endpoint: Malware executed] + [Identity: Credential stolen]
                                    |
                                    v
                          [Unified Incident View]

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Each detection is mapped to MITRE ATT&CK framework:

Example:

Detection: Suspicious PowerShell download
Technique: T1059.001 (PowerShell)
Tactic: Execution
Kill Chain Stage: Installation

This allows for:

• Understanding attacker techniques
• Gap analysis coverage
• Reporting and compliance

Threat Hunting

Falcon Insight offers proactive threat hunting tools:

Falcon Search

Query language for searching data:

process_name:powershell.exe AND cmdline:*-enc*

Scheduled Searches

Saved queries executed cyclically.

Hunting Playbooks

Ready playbooks for searching:

• Credential theft
• Lateral movement
• Data exfiltration
• Persistence mechanisms

Falcon Insight vs Competition

Feature	Falcon Insight	Microsoft Defender	SentinelOne
Architecture	Cloud-native	Hybrid	Cloud/On-prem
Agent size	25MB	200MB+	70MB
XDR scope	Full stack	Microsoft ecosystem	Endpoints + some
Threat intel	CrowdStrike (best-in-class)	Microsoft	Limited
Managed hunting	OverWatch available	Limited	Vigilance available

Implementation with nFlo

1. Planning - scope, policies, integrations
2. Deployment - agent rollout
3. Tuning - custom IOA, exclusions
4. Integration - SIEM, SOAR, ticketing
5. Training - SOC team enablement
6. Operations - ongoing support