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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Contain the attacker’s access as quickly as you can do so safely, preserve evidence before routine cleanup destroys it, and investigate every potentially affected system—not just the one where the flaw was first found. Then remove unauthorized access, fix or mitigate the exploited weakness across the environment, and restore services in controlled stages with heightened monitoring.
NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3, published in April 2025, is the current general incident-response framework and integrates response into cybersecurity risk management under the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 contains useful operational detail, but it has been superseded.
1. Establish control and set priorities
Activate your incident-response process and appoint an incident lead. Bring in the system owners and technical teams responsible for affected services, and involve legal, privacy, communications, and executive leadership as the incident warrants. Keep a secure, time-stamped record of decisions and events; incident records can themselves contain sensitive vulnerability and breach information.
Prioritize based on the incident’s current and likely future effects on operations, information, and recovery—not simply the order in which alerts arrived. Identify exposed systems and business-critical services early. Availability and safety requirements can affect which containment action is appropriate.
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2. Contain the exploited path without creating avoidable harm
Choose the least risky effective action available for the specific product, architecture, threat activity, and operational consequences. Depending on the situation, options may include disabling or isolating the affected service, restricting inbound or outbound traffic, removing a system from a load balancer, applying a vendor-recommended mitigation, or segmenting affected systems.
| Containment option | What it can do | What to assess before using it |
|---|---|---|
| Disable or isolate the affected service | Reduce exposure through the vulnerable application or component. | Potential damage or theft, service availability, and whether the change could affect dependent systems. |
| Restrict network traffic or segment affected systems | Limit access to the vulnerable path or reduce opportunities for movement between systems. | Whether the restriction blocks the attacker’s path, how quickly it can be implemented, and what legitimate traffic or operations it may disrupt. |
| Remove a system from a load balancer | Stop traffic from reaching that system through the load-balanced service. | Whether this actually removes exposure and what the change means for service capacity and availability. |
| Apply a vendor-recommended mitigation | Address the vulnerable path where disabling or isolating the service is not the preferred option. | The mitigation’s effectiveness, implementation effort, expected duration, and any operational effects. |
Compare candidate actions by how much they reduce attacker access and potential harm, preserve evidence, affect business or safety, cost in time and resources, block the attack path, and how long the measure will remain effective. These are the containment considerations in NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2, which is superseded. Disconnecting a system is not automatically safe: NIST cautions that some malicious processes may cause further damage when network communication fails. Conversely, delaying containment can give an attacker time to escalate access or compromise more systems.
Do not leave a known-compromised system online simply to watch the attacker unless you have a controlled, legally reviewed plan. NIST discusses sandboxing as a possible controlled approach and warns about the risks of allowing a known compromise to continue.
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3. Preserve evidence and build a timeline
Before routine cleanup, reimaging, or system changes erase useful traces, decide what evidence is needed and who is qualified to collect it. When relevant and feasible, prioritize volatile or short-retention sources, such as system memory and logs held in limited-retention buffers. CISA’s StopRansomware Guide recommends system images, memory capture, and relevant logs when its described initial mitigation actions are not possible; adapt that ransomware-focused guidance to the incident at hand. Do not delay urgent containment if waiting would increase harm.
Collect the records available for the affected environment, which may include:
- Application and operating-system logs.
- Identity, endpoint, network, cloud, and security-tool records.
- System state and other relevant evidence identified by the response team.
Preserve timestamps and time zones, and note gaps, retention limits, and clock differences. Build a chronology from initial exploitation indicators through detection, containment, remediation, and recovery. The specific data sources depend on the technology and its logging configuration.
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Maintain an evidence log with identifying details, handlers’ names and roles, dates and times including time zones, storage locations, and every transfer. Use chain-of-custody forms where evidence may be used in legal proceedings. Coordinate collection procedures with legal staff and, when relevant, appropriate law enforcement.
4. Find out what was exploited, what was affected, and what the attacker did
Inventory systems that run the affected software or are otherwise exposed to the vulnerable path. Compare their versions and configurations with vendor and agency advisories. Track each known or suspected asset through discovery, containment, investigation, patching or mitigation, verification, and monitoring.
For each asset, determine whether the available evidence indicates attempted exploitation, successful code execution, unauthorized access, persistence, lateral movement, credential theft, or access to or exfiltration of data. Separate confirmed observations from hypotheses, and record the evidence and confidence behind each finding.
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Look beyond the first vulnerable server. Identify all affected hosts and exploited vulnerabilities, then check whether unauthorized access or persistence remains. NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 describes finding affected hosts and mitigating vulnerabilities as part of eradication; use that specific operational guidance with the caveat that Rev. 2 has been superseded.
CISA and partner agencies’ December 2021 Log4j advisory illustrates why asset tracking matters: it advises organizations to inventory known and suspected vulnerable assets and document actions taken. It also notes that an attacker may patch an asset to protect the attacker’s own operations. Accordingly, check change history and validate authorized control of the system; a changed version number by itself does not show that the environment is clean.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.5. Eradicate access and fix every exploited weakness
Once immediate containment is in place and evidence-collection decisions have been made, remove malware or other incident components. Disable breached accounts as appropriate, revoke sessions or tokens when relevant, and rotate credentials that may have been exposed. Close the exploited path by patching or applying a vendor-supported mitigation to every affected asset, including systems outside the initially observed cluster. Review related configurations and access pathways for persistence.
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Record what changed and when. Where feasible, validate the fix with more than one suitable method—for example, version and configuration checks alongside vulnerability scanning or targeted testing. Keep testing authorized, scoped, and appropriate for the production environment. CISA’s Log4j advisory recommends verifying mitigation and monitoring the asset afterward.
6. Restore services in stages and monitor for recurrence
Restore affected services in controlled phases. Use known-clean backups or rebuild systems when you cannot trust the integrity of the existing installation. Before returning a service to normal operation, confirm that it operates as intended and that the exploited vulnerability has been fixed or mitigated.
Increase logging or monitoring during the heightened-risk period. Watch for repeat exploitation, suspicious authentication, unexpected configuration changes, and newly discovered affected assets. Continue to account for vendor updates as they become available. NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 lists clean backups, rebuilding, patching, password changes, stronger perimeter controls, and increased logging or monitoring as recovery examples; that guide is superseded.
7. Communicate, report, and apply what you learn
Give decision-makers a concise account of what is known, what remains uncertain, the operational impact, actions taken, and the next decisions required. With counsel, determine external notification and reporting obligations based on the organization’s jurisdictions, sector, affected data, contracts, and regulator requirements. The general guidance cited here does not establish a universal notification deadline. Consider contacting relevant national cyber authorities or law enforcement when appropriate.
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