Red Team Handbook rewrite

Why is this change being made?

The Red Team handbook page is a bit outdated and requires a bit of a refresh. See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-security/security-operations/redteam/redteam-internal/red-team-operations/-/issues/1371+ for details.

Proposed structure:

• Red Team (main page)
  • Stealth operations (subpage)
  • Purple team operations (subpage)
  • Opportunistic attacks (subpage)
    • Club Red
  • Research (subpage, if needed)
  • How we operate (subpage)
    • General operations
    • How we measure success
      • metrics
    • rules of engagement (separate page maybe? like it is now)
    • Red Team maturity model

I wanted to capture that the current page has a bit too much "how" on it and visitors (who we don't work with often) might want to drill down into each part separately.

Author and Reviewer Checklist

Please verify the check list and ensure to tick them off before the MR is merged.

• Provided a concise title for this Merge Request (MR)
• Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say why, not just what
  • Copy/paste the Slack conversation to document it for later, or upload screenshots. Verify that no confidential data is added, and the content is SAFE
• Assign reviewers for this MR to the correct Directly Responsible Individual/s (DRI)
  • If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the Maintained by section on the page being edited
  • If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in #mr-buddies
  • The when to get approval handbook section explains the workflow in more detail
• For transparency, share this MR with the audience that will be impacted.
  • Team: For changes that affect your direct team, share in your group Slack channel
  • Department: If the update affects your department, share the MR in your department Slack channel
  • Division: If the update affects your division, share the MR in your division Slack channel
  • Company: If the update affects all (or the majority of) GitLab team members, post an update in #whats-happening-at-gitlab linking to this MR
    • For high-priority company-wide announcements work with the internal communications team to post the update in #company-fyi and align on a plan to circulate in additional channels like the "While You Were Iterating" Newsletter

Commits

• Red Team Handbook rewrite

---

content/handbook/security/security-operations/red-team/how-we-operate/_index.md

@@ -2,6 +2,105 @@
 title: "How the Red Team Operates"
 ---
 
-# How the Red Team operates
+## General operation guidelines
+
+Security breaches happen. We read about them every day. Most of our operations are not meant to prove this risk, as it is a well-accepted industry fact.
+
+### 1. Initial access vector or assumed breach
+
+If relevant, we may conduct operations specifically looking for initial access vectors to exploit. These require substantial time and resources, so we ensure the investment is justified by the potential for security improvements and learning.
+
+Red Team members can also hunt for ways to "break in" to GitLab at any time in the context of an [Opportunistic Attack](../#opportunistic-attacks). This allows us to quickly remediate any discoveries. Successful intrusions can then be re-used in future stealth operations as proof of a realistic initial access vector.
+
+[Club Red](../opportunistic-attacks/#club-red) allows team members to collaborate with us to develop an initial access idea they have.
+
+#### "Assumed Breach" first
+
+Our Red Team operations can start from an "assumed breach" scenario where we gain initial access to GitLab's systems through a trusted insider. This is done in a realistic manner, leaving indicators of compromise ([IoCs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indicator_of_compromise)) that reflect an actual breach. From there, we focus on post-exploitation tactics and techniques such as establishing persistence and elevating privileges.
+
+### 2. Operation execution
+
+All operations follow our [rules of engagement](rules-of-engagement.md).
+
+### 3. Internal disclosure or discovery
+
+A given operation will continue until we are detected or until we disclose internally. Depending on what we find during an operation (for example, if we discover a significant security risk), we may disclose early to mitigate risk.
+
+After each operation, we meet with [Signals Engineering](../../signals-engineering/) and [Security Incident Response Team (SIRT)](../../sirt/) review our findings, attack steps and review detections and alerts.
+
+If social engineering is involved, we follow a careful process to offer to meet with anyone who was involved in social engineering to ensure that they feel comfortable.
+
+### 4. Report and recommendations for security improvements
+
+We then release a [report](#reporting) summarising the operation and our recommendations for improving security posture. We create issues using the [issue template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-security/security-operations/redteam/redteam-public/resources/red-team-issue-templates), apply the relevant labels, and use this for tracking [metrics](#red-team-metrics).
+
+### Reporting
+
+All operations end with a final report. We use a publicly shared [issue template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-security/security-operations/redteam/redteam-public/resources/red-team-issue-templates).
+
+Security risks affect everyone, and it is essential to make our reports approachable and consumable to a broad audience. Our goal is to ensure that anyone in the company can understand the reports, even if they don't have a technical background or a in security, so we strive to [use simple language](/handbook/communication/#simple-language).
+
+There may also be a short (five minutes or less) video summary, if we feel it's needed.
+
+We will then share the following in `#whats-happening-at-gitlab` and cross-post it in `#security`:
+
+- A very short summary of the operation, including the video overview if there is one
+- A link to the final report
+- A link to the retrospective issue to solicit questions and feedback
+- A disclaimer to keep the information [SAFE](/handbook/legal/safe-framework/#how-do-we-reinforce-safe).
+- A tagged list of individual operation participants as well as the Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) as a whole for awareness since not all team members participate in an operation each time.
+
+By doing this, we help foster a culture of security awareness throughout the organization and ensure that everyone can benefit from our work.
+
+### Post-operation technique handover
+
+While this may result in product fixes or infrastructure changes, it is possible that vulnerable configurations may reappear in the environment. At this point, GitLab's [Vulnerability Management](/handbook/security/product-security/vulnerability-management/) group will take over any ongoing scanning required to monitor for this scenario. The Red Team will share any tools they used for the initial discovery, but Vulnerability Management will generally implement a more production-ready permanent scanning solution.
+
+## Red Team Maturity Model
+
+We use a custom maturity model to measure our progress and help guide our decisions. This is loosely based on the [Capabilities Maturity Model (CMM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Maturity_Model). Our model contains five stages of maturity, each with very specific behaviors we strive to demonstrate and states we hope to achieve.
+
+## Red Team Metrics
+
+### Adoption Rate
+
+A successful Red Team program strengthens an organization's security through recommendations that are adopted, (i.e. accepted and ultimately implemented) by the organization. We track the lifecycle of these recommendations through to implementation using GitLab.com, calling this metric our "Adoption Rate."
+
+Recommendations start as GitLab.com issues in the project closest to the team that can address them. We classify recommendations using labels:
+
+- Detections & Alerts (`RTRec::Detection`)
+- Security Controls (`RTRec::Control`)
+- Processes and Procedures (`RTRec::Process`)
+
+We track what happens after a recommendation is delivered by adding a secondary label to the issue with its current status or final outcome:
+
+- Under review (`RecOutcome::UnderReview`)
+- Accepted and actively being worked on (`RecOutcome::InProgress`)
+- Accepted but backlogged (`RecOutcome::Backlogged`)
+- Accepted but blocked (`RecOutcome::Blocked`)
+- Fully adopted and closed (`RecOutcome::Adopted`)
+- Partially adopted and closed (`RecOutcome::PartiallyAdopted`)
+- Not adopted and closed (`RecOutcome::NotAdopted`)
+
+An outcome label is added to the issue within one week of delivering the recommendation. A scheduled CI pipeline checks issues with classification labels to ensure they have an outcome.
+
+### MITRE ATT&CK Mapping
+
+[MITRE ATT&CK](https://attack.mitre.org) is a framework for classifying and describing cyber attacks. We use ATT&CK extensively, as it helps us to align our operations to realistic threats and to speak a common language across security groups.
+
+We use a combination of GitLab CI pipelines and GitLab Pages to build and host two reporting tools from MITRE:
+
+- [MITRE ATT&CK Flow](https://github.com/center-for-threat-informed-defense/attack-flow)
+  - [Our internal automation project](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-security/security-operations/redteam/redteam-internal/automation/ci-attack-flow)
+  - [Our internal build](https://flow.gl-redteam.com/)
+- [MITRE ATT&CK Navigator](https://mitre-attack.github.io/attack-navigator/)
+  - [Our internal automation project](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-security/security-operations/redteam/redteam-internal/automation/ci-attack-navigator)
+  - [Our internal build](https://navigator.gl-redteam.com/)
+  - [Public blog describing the project](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2023/08/09/gitlab-mitre-attack-navigator/)
+
+For each completed operation, we build a flow chart to visualize the attack path and indicators of compromise. This chart can be exported as a [STIX 2.1 compliant](https://center-for-threat-informed-defense.github.io/attack-flow/language/) JSON file, meaning it is machine-readable and can be imported into other tools for analysis.
+
+That same ATT&CK Flow file is imported into our ATT&CK Navigator project, which generates a heatmap visualizing our coverage across the ATT&CK matrix. We maintain a single heatmap for each operation, as well as a combined heatmap for all previous operations.
+
+This is s great way to visualize the types of attack techniques we've emulated, and to help us understand areas we should focus on in future operations.
 
-- [rules of engagement](rules-of-engagement.md)
\ No newline at end of file