Managing Panther Content via GitHub Actions

Manage detections and schemas in Panther with a CI/CD workflow using GitHub Actions
Overview
You can configure GitHub Actions to automate testing, customize detections, and upload your detection pipeline from your GitHub repository to your Panther Console. This guide will walk you through the following:
Creating a custom workflow via GitHub Actions
Testing your custom schemas and detections
Uploading the schemas and detections to your Panther Console
Customizing your GitHub Actions workflow to fit your organization's needs
See CI/CD for Panther Content for information on starting your CI/CD workflow with Panther.
Prerequisites
To get started with managing your Panther detections and schemas using GitHub Actions, you will need:
A Panther API Token
Follow our documentation for Creating an API Token and ensure it has the correct permissions for each command.
You will pass this API token as an argument to the panther_analysis_tool command for operations such as uploading/deleting detections, custom schemas, saved queries, and more. See this section for usage examples.​
Your Panther API Host Name
Your Panther API hostname will look like this:
https://api.<your-panther-instance-name>.runpanther.net/public/graphql
Your Panther API Token added as a GitHub secret under the name PANTHER_API_TOKEN
To add the token to Secrets, follow GitHub's documentation: Creating encrypted secrets for a repository. This secret is shown later in this document as secrets.PantherApiToken.
This guide explains how to upload to your Panther Console via GitHub Actions using Panther API keys and Github secrets. This is the recommended method if you are using GitHub Actions. You can also upload to your Panther Console directly via the panther_analysis_tool. For more information, see Panther Analysis Tool Overview.​
Configure GitHub Actions for Panther
Step 1: Make use of the Panther-managed detections in the panther-analysis GitHub repo
Follow the documentation to make use of Panther-managed detections in the panther-analysis GitHub repo: Using the Panther detections repo.
Step 2: Create a new GitHub workflow
1.Navigate to the GitHub repository where you would like to set up automation.
2.Within the GitHub repository, navigate to Actions.
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3.Click New Workflow.
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4.Click Set up a workflow yourself →.
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5.On the next page, replace the default filename (main.yml) with a descriptive name, e.g., panther-workflow.yml.
Step 3: Build a workflow to test detections and upload data
Add the following code to the YAML file:
GitHub workflow YAML
1
name: Panther Analysis CI/CD workflow
2
​
3
permissions:
4
 id-token: write
5
 contents: read
6
​
7
on: 
8
 push:
9
 branches:
10
 - master
11
 paths:
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 - 'data_models/**'
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 - 'lookup_tables/**'
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 - 'policies/**'
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 - 'queries/**'
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 - 'rules/**'
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 - '.github/workflows/**'
18
​
19
jobs: 
20
 run_unit_tests: 
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 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
22
 name: Run unit tests on detections using the panther_analysis_tool
23
 steps:
24
 - name: Check out the repo
25
 uses: actions/checkout@v3
26
 
27
 - name: Set python version 
28
 uses: actions/setup-python@v4
29
 with:
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 python-version: '3.9'
31
 
32
 - name: Install pipenv
33
 run: pip install pipenv
34
 
35
 - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
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 run: make install
37
 
38
 - name: Run unit tests for all detections
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 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test
40
 
41
 panther_analysis_tool_upload: 
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 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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 name: Upload detections to panther console using panther_analysis_tool
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 needs: [run_unit_tests]
45
 env:
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 PANTHER_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PANTHER_API_TOKEN }}
47
 PANTHER_API_HOST: "https://api.<your-panther>.runpanther.net/public/graphql"
48
 AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: "your-aws-region"
49
 steps:
50
 - name: Checkout the repo
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 uses: actions/checkout@v3
52
 
53
 - name: Set python version 
54
 uses: actions/setup-python@v4
55
 with:
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 python-version: '3.9'
57
 
58
 - name: Install pipenv
59
 run: pip install pipenv
60
 
61
 - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
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 run: make install
63
 
64
 - name: Upload Enabled detections to your Panther instance
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 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool upload --filter Enabled=true --skip-tests
66
​
Make sure to update the values of the following environment variables:
PANTHER_API_HOST on line 47: Replace <your-panther> with your Panther instance's public GraphQL URL.
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION on line 48: Replace with the region where your Panther Console is deployed. 
You can find this value in your Panther Console within general settings.
This workflow assumes you have added your Panther API token as a GitHub secret under the name PANTHER_API_TOKEN. If you have not already done this, follow the instructions within Prerequisites.
This will run the tests you have created on your detections and then upload all your Panther content (Lookup Tables, Data Models, and detections) if they passed. 
Step 4: Push changes
Run git push.
After the Github Actions workflow is complete, the following will occur the next time you use git push to make changes to the folders in the paths section of the workflow:
Custom detections are tested with panther_analysis_tool.
Upon success, detections are uploaded to your Panther Console.
Optional: Build a workflow for custom schemas
If you are building custom schemas, use the following YAML code to include the schemas in your workflow:
GitHub workflow YAML with schemas
1
name: Panther Analysis CI/CD workflow
2
​
3
permissions:
4
 id-token: write
5
 contents: read
6
​
7
on: 
8
 push:
9
 branches:
10
 - main
11
 paths:
12
 - 'data_models/**'
13
 - 'lookup_tables/**'
14
 - 'policies/**'
15
 - 'queries/**'
16
 - 'rules/**'
17
 - '.github/workflows/**'
18
​
19
jobs: 
20
 download_pantherlog_tool:
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 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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 name: Download the pantherlog tool to use for schema tests
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 steps: 
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 - name: Download pantherlog & unzip 
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 run: curl -sSO "https://panther-community-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/v1.46.0/tools/linux-amd64-pantherlog.zip" && unzip linux-amd64-pantherlog.zip
26
 
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 - name: Create a pantherlog artifact
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 uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
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 with:
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 name: pantherlog
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 path: pantherlog
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 retention-days: 1
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 run_schema_tests: 
35
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
36
 name: Run schema tests with pantherlog
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 needs: [download_pantherlog_tool]
38
 steps:
39
 - name: Check out the repo
40
 uses: actions/checkout@v3
41
​
42
 - name: Download Pantherlog tool from artifacts
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 uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
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 with: 
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 name: pantherlog
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 - name: Make pantherlog executable
47
 run: sudo chmod +x pantherlog
48
​
49
 - name: Perform schema tests with pantherlog
50
 run: ./pantherlog test ./schemas
51
 
52
 run_unit_tests: 
53
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
54
 name: Run unit tests on detections using the panther_analysis_tool
55
 steps:
56
 - name: Check out the repo
57
 uses: actions/checkout@v3
58
 
59
 - name: Set python version 
60
 uses: actions/setup-python@v4
61
 with:
62
 python-version: '3.9'
63
 
64
 - name: Install pipenv
65
 run: pip install pipenv
66
 
67
 - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
68
 run: make install
69
 
70
 - name: Run unit tests for all rule detections
71
 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=rule
72
 
73
 - name: Run unit tests for all scheduled rule detections
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 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=scheduled_rule
75
 
76
 - name: Run unit tests for all policy detections
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 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=policy
78
 
79
 panther_analysis_tool_upload: 
80
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
81
 name: Upload detections to panther console using panther_analysis_tool
82
 needs: [download_pantherlog_tool, run_schema_tests, run_unit_tests]
83
 env:
84
 PANTHER_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PANTHER_API_TOKEN }}
85
 PANTHER_API_HOST: "https://api.<your-panther>.runpanther.net/public/graphql"
86
 AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: "your-aws-region"
87
 steps:
88
 - name: Checkout the repo
89
 uses: actions/checkout@v3
90
 
91
 - name: Set python version 
92
 uses: actions/setup-python@v4
93
 with:
94
 python-version: '3.9'
95
​
96
 - name: Install pipenv
97
 run: pip install pipenv
98
​
99
 - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
100
 run: make install
101
 
102
 - name: Upload detections to your Panther instance
103
 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool upload --batch --skip-tests
104
 
105
 - name: Upload custom schemas to your Panther Instance
106
 run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool update-custom-schemas --path schemas/
107
​
Make sure to update the values of the following environment variables:
PANTHER_API_HOST on line 85: Replace <your-panther> with your Panther instance's public GraphQL URL.
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION on line 86: Replace with the region where your Panther Console is deployed. 
You can find this value in your Panther Console within general settings.
This workflow assumes you have added your Panther API token as a GitHub secret under the name PANTHER_API_TOKEN. If you have not already done this, follow the instructions within Prerequisites.
Push changes
Run git push.
Now, the following will occur the next time you use git push to make changes to the folders in the paths section of the workflow:
Custom log schemas are tested with pantherlog.
Custom detections are tested with panther_analysis_tool.
Upon success, schemas and detections are uploaded to your Panther Console.
Optional: Customize your GitHub Actions workflow in Panther
Optionally, you can extend or customize this workflow to better fit your organization. The following are common workflow customizations with Panther:
Perform Python Linting against .py files.
Trigger from an approved Pull Request (PR) instead of a Push to a specific folder.
If you fork the panther-analysis repository by the latest tag, learn how syncing a fork can help keep Panther Detections up-to-date. We recommend syncing weekly by tag.
For more information on GitHub Actions, please see Github's documentation.
Managing Panther Content via CircleCI
Next - Panther Developer Workflows
Panther API
Last modified 1mo ago