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« Cases requirements Configure case settings »
Elastic Docs ›Serverless ›Elastic Security Serverless ›Investigation tools ›Cases

Create and manage cases

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Create and manage cases

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You can create and manage cases using the UI or the cases API.

Open a new case

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Open a new case to keep track of security issues and share their details with colleagues.

  1. Go to Cases, then click Create case. If no cases exist, the Cases table will be empty and you’ll be prompted to create one by clicking the Create case button inside the table.

  2. (Optional) If you defined templates, select one to use its default field values. . Give the case a name, assign a severity level, and provide a description. You can use Markdown syntax in the case description.

    If you do not assign your case a severity level, it will be assigned Low by default.

    You can insert a Timeline link in the case description by clicking the Timeline icon (Timeline).

  3. Optionally, add a category, assignees and relevant tags. You can add users only if they meet the necessary prerequisites.
  4. If you defined custom fields, they appear in the Additional fields section.
  5. Choose if you want alert statuses to sync with the case’s status after they are added to the case. This option is enabled by default, but you can turn it off after creating the case.
  6. From External incident management, select a connector. If you’ve previously added one, that connector displays as the default selection. Otherwise, the default setting is No connector selected.

  7. Click Create case.

    If you’ve selected a connector for the case, the case is automatically pushed to the third-party system it’s connected to.

Shows an open case

Manage existing cases

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From the Cases page, you can search existing cases and filter them by attributes such as assignees, categories, severity, status, and tags. You can also select multiple cases and use bulk actions to delete cases or change their attributes. General case metrics, including how long it takes to close cases, are provided above the table.

Case UI Home

To explore a case, click on its name. You can then:

Review the case summary

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Click on an existing case to access its summary. The case summary, located under the case title, contains metrics that summarize alert information and response times. These metrics update when you attach additional unique alerts to the case, add connectors, or modify the case’s status:

  • Total alerts: Total number of unique alerts attached to the case
  • Associated users: Total number of unique users that are represented in the attached alerts
  • Associated hosts: Total number of unique hosts that are represented in the attached alerts
  • Total connectors: Total number of connectors that have been added to the case
  • Case created: Date and time that the case was created
  • Open duration: Time elapsed since the case was created
  • In progress duration: How long the case has been in the In progress state
  • Duration from creation to close: Time elapsed from when the case was created to when it was closed
Shows you a summary of the case

Manage case comments

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To edit, delete, or quote a comment, select the appropriate option from the More actions menu (More actions).

Shows you a summary of the case

Examine alerts attached to a case

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To explore the alerts attached to a case, click the Alerts tab. In the table, alerts are organized from oldest to newest. To view alert details, click the View details button.

Shows you the Alerts tab

Each case can have a maximum of 1,000 alerts.

Add files

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To upload files to a case, click the Files tab:

A list of files attached to a case

You can add images and text, CSV, JSON, PDF, or ZIP files. For the complete list, check mime_types.ts.

There is a 10 MiB size limit for images. For all other MIME types, the limit is 100 MiB.

To download or delete the file, or copy the file hash to your clipboard, open the Actions menu (…). The available hash functions are MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256.

When you add a file, a comment is added to the case activity log. To view an image, click its name in the activity or file list.

Add a Lens visualization

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This functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

Add a Lens visualization to your case to portray event and alert data through charts and graphs.

Shows how to add a visualization to a case

To add a Lens visualization to a comment within your case:

  1. Click the Visualization button. The Add visualization dialog appears.

  2. Select an existing visualization from your Visualize Library or create a new visualization.

    Set an absolute time range for your visualization. This ensures your visualization doesn’t change over time after you save it to your case, and provides important context for others managing the case.

  3. Save the visualization to your Visualize Library by clicking the Save to library button (optional).

    1. Enter a title and description for the visualization.
    2. Choose if you want to keep the Update panel on Security activated. This option is activated by default and automatically adds the visualization to your Visualize Library.
  4. After you’ve finished creating your visualization, click Save and return to go back to your case.
  5. Click Preview to show how the visualization will appear in the case comment.
  6. Click Add Comment to add the visualization to your case.

Alternatively, while viewing a dashboard you can open a panel’s menu then click More actions (More actions​) → Add to existing case or More actions (More actions​) → Add to new case.

After a visualization has been added to a case, you can modify or interact with it by clicking the Open Visualization option in the case’s comment menu.

Shows where the Open Visualization option is

Add observables

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Requirements

To use observables, you must have the Security Analytics Essentials project feature.

An observable is a piece of information about an investigation, for example, a suspicious URL or a file hash. Use observables to identify correlated events and better understand the severity and scope of a case.

To create an observable:

  1. Click the Observables tab, then click Add observable.

    Each case can have a maximum of 50 observables.

  2. Provide the necessary details:

    • Type: Select a type for the observable. You can choose a preset type or a custom one.
    • Value: Enter a value for the observable. The value must align with the type you select.
    • Description (Optional): Provide additional information about the observable.
  3. Click Add observable.

After adding an observable to a case, you can remove or edit it by using the Actions menu (…).

Go to the Similar cases tab to access other cases with the same observables.

Shows you where to add observables

Copy the case UUID

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Each case has a universally unique identifier (UUID) that you can copy and share. To copy a case’s UUID to a clipboard, go to the Cases page and select Actions → Copy Case ID for the case you want to share. Alternatively, go to a case’s details page, then from the More actions menu (More actions), select Copy Case ID.

Copy Case ID option in More actions menu 40%

Export and import cases

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Cases can be exported and imported as saved objects using the Saved Objects project settings UI.

Before importing Lens visualizations, Timelines, or alerts, ensure their data is present. Without it, they won’t work after being imported.

Export a case

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Use the Export option to move cases between different Elastic Security instances. When you export a case, the following data is exported to a newline-delimited JSON (.ndjson) file:

  • Case details
  • User actions
  • Text string comments
  • Case alerts
  • Lens visualizations (exported as JSON blobs).

The following attachments are not exported:

  • Case files: Case files are not exported. However, they are accessible in Project Settings → Stack Management → Files to download and re-add.
  • Alerts: Alerts attached to cases are not exported. You must re-add them after importing cases.

To export a case:

  1. Go to Project Settings → Stack Management → Saved objects.
  2. Search for the case by choosing a saved object type or entering the case title in the search bar.
  3. Select one or more cases, then click the Export button.

  4. Click Export. A confirmation message that your file is downloading displays.

    Keep the Include related objects option enabled to ensure connectors are exported too.

Shows the export saved objects workflow

Import a case

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To import a case:

  1. Go to Project settings → Management → Saved objects.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Select the NDJSON file containing the exported case and configure the import options.
  4. Click Import.

  5. Review the import log and click Done.

    Be mindful of the following:

    • If the imported case had connectors attached to it, you’ll be prompted to re-authenticate the connectors. To do so, click Go to connectors on the Import saved objects flyout and complete the necessary steps. Alternatively, open the main menu, then go to Project Settings → Stack Management → Connectors to access connectors.
    • If the imported case had attached alerts, verify that the alerts' source documents exist in the environment. Case features that interact with alerts (such as the Alert details flyout and rule details page) rely on the alerts' source documents to function.
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