Develop the connector

Supported in:

This document explains how to build a new connector in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) by creating an integration and then linking a connector to it.

Create an email connector integration

To create an email connector integration, follow these steps:

  1. In the Response > IDE window, click Add to add a new IDE item.
  2. Select Integration and name the integration Email Connector.
  3. Click Create. The integration appears in the sidebar with a default icon.
  4. Click more_vert Configure Custom Integration and define these settings:
    • Description
    • Icon
    • Python Dependencies
    • Integration Parameters
  5. Click Save.

Create an email connector

To create an email connector, follow these steps:

  1. In the Response > IDE window, click Add to add a new IDE item.
  2. Select the Connector radio button and name the connector My Email Connector.
  3. In the list, select the integration Email Connector to associate the connector with the integration.
  4. Click Create.

Set the connector parameters

After you create the connector, set the connector parameters:

  1. Set the connector parameters according to the table:

    2. Parameter Description Type
    Username Required. IMAP username. The email address from which the connector pulls the emails into the Google SecOps platform. The default value is email@gmail.com. string
    Password Required. Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) password for the email address the connector uses to pull emails into the Google SecOps platform. password
    IMAP Port Required. The specific network port used by the IMAP to access emails from a remote server. For example: 993 (default value). int
    IMAP Server Address Required. The incoming mail server for an IMAP account. For example, imap.gmail.com (default value). string
    Folder to check for emails Optional. Pulls emails only from the specified folder. For example: Inbox (default value). inbox
  2. Enter the following field details:
    1. Product Field Name = device_product: Determines the raw field value to assign to the alert's product name. Find the related field in the code, which was defined as Mail (product).
      event["device_product"] = PRODUCT #The PRODUCT constant is `"Mail"
    2. Event Field Name = event_name: Determines the raw field value to assign to the event type field. Find the related field in the code, defined as Suspicious email.
      event["event_name"] = Suspicious email

Edit the email connector

To edit the parameters for the email connector, follow these steps:

  1. Copy the following code created for My Email Connector, paste it in the IDE, and follow the instructions: 
    from SiemplifyConnectors import SiemplifyConnectorExecution
from SiemplifyConnectorsDataModel import AlertInfo
from SiemplifyUtils import output_handler, convert_datetime_to_unix_time, convert_string_to_datetime
import email, imaplib, sys, re

# CONSTANTS
CONNECTOR_NAME = "Mail"
VENDOR = "Mail"
PRODUCT = "Mail"
DEFAULT_PRIORITY = 60 # Default is Medium
RULE_GENERATOR_EXAMPLE = "Mail"
DEFAULT_FOLDER_TO_CHECK_INBOX = "inbox"
DEFAULT_MESSAGES_TO_READ_UNSEEN = "UNSEEN"
URLS_REGEX = r"(?i)\b(?:http(?:s)?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?[a-zA-Z0-9:%_\+~#=][a-zA-Z0-9:%\._\+~#=]{1,255}\.[a-z]{2,6}\b(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]*)"


def create_alert(siemplify, alert_id, email_message_data, datetime_in_unix_time, created_event):
    """Returns an alert which is one event that contains one unread email message"""
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"Started processing Alert {alert_id}")

    create_event = None
    alert_info = AlertInfo()
    # Initializes alert_info
    alert_info.display_id = f"{alert_id}" # Each alert needs to have a unique id, otherwise it won't create a case with the same alert id.
    alert_info.ticket_id = f"{alert_id}" # In default, ticket_id = display_id. However, if for some reason the external alert id is different from the display_id, you can save the original external alert id in the "ticket_id" field. 
    alert_info.name = email_message_data['Subject']
    alert_info.rule_generator = RULE_GENERATOR_EXAMPLE # The name of the siem rule which causes the creation of the alert. 
    alert_info.start_time = datetime_in_unix_time # Time should be saved in UnixTime. You may use SiemplifyUtils.convert_datetime_to_unix_time, or SiemplifyUtils.convert_string_to_datetime 
    alert_info.end_time = datetime_in_unix_time # Time should be saved in UnixTime. You may use SiemplifyUtils.convert_datetime_to_unix_time, or SiemplifyUtils.convert_string_to_datetime
    alert_info.priority = 60 # Informative = -1,Low = 40,Medium = 60,High = 80,Critical = 100.
    alert_info.device_vendor = VENDOR # The field will be fetched from the Original Alert. If you build this alert manually, state the source vendor of the data. (ie: Microsoft, Mcafee) 
    alert_info.device_product = PRODUCT # The field will be fetched from the Original Alert. If you build this alert manually, state the source product of the data. (ie: ActiveDirectory, AntiVirus)

    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"Events creating started for alert {alert_id}")
    try:
        if created_event is not None:
            alert_info.events.append(created_event)
            siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"Added Event {alert_id} to Alert {alert_id}")
    # Raise an exception if failed to process the event
    except Exception as e:
        siemplify.LOGGER.error(f"Failed to process event {alert_id}")
        siemplify.LOGGER.exception(e)
    return alert_info


def create_event(siemplify, alert_id, email_message_data, all_found_url_in_emails_body_list, datetime_in_unix_time):
    """Returns the digested data of a single unread email"""
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"--- Started processing Event: alert_id: {alert_id} | event_id: {alert_id}") 
    event = {} 
    event["StartTime"] = datetime_in_unix_time # Time should be saved in UnixTime. You may use SiemplifyUtils.convert_datetime_to_unix_time, or SiemplifyUtils.convert_string_to_datetime 
    event["EndTime"] = datetime_in_unix_time # Time should be saved in UnixTime. You may use SiemplifyUtils.convert_datetime_to_unix_time, or SiemplifyUtils.convert_string_to_datetime 
    event["event_name"] = "Suspicious email" 
    event["device_product"] = PRODUCT # ie: "device_product" is the field name that describes the product the event originated from. 
    event["Subject"] = email_message_data["Subject"] 
    event["SourceUserName"] = email_message_data["From"] 
    event["DestinationUserName"] = email_message_data["To"] 
    event["found_url"] = ",".join(all_found_url_in_emails_body_list) 
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"---Finished processing Event: alert_id: {alert_id} | event_id: {alert_id}")
    return event


def find_url_in_email_message_body(siemplify, email_messages_data_list):
    """Search for a url in the email body"""
    all_found_url_in_emails_body_list = []
    for message in email_messages_data_list:
        for part in message.walk():
            if part.get_content_maintype() == 'text\plain':
                continue
            email_message_body = part.get_payload()
            all_found_urls = re.findall(URLS_REGEX, str(email_message_body))
            for url in all_found_urls:
                if url not in all_found_url_in_emails_body_list:
                    all_found_url_in_emails_body_list.append(url)


def get_email_messages_data(imap_host, imap_port, username, password, folder_to_check):
    """Returns all unread email messages"""
    email_messages_data_list = []

    # Login to email using 'imap' module
    mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(imap_host, imap_port)
    mail.login(username, password)

    # Determining the default email folder to pull emails from - 'inbox'
    if folder_to_check is None:
        folder_to_check = DEFAULT_FOLDER_TO_CHECK_INBOX

    # Selecting the email folder to pull the data from
    mail.select(folder_to_check)

    # Storing the email message data
    result, data = mail.search(None, DEFAULT_MESSAGES_TO_READ_UNSEEN)

    # If there are several emails collected in the cycle it will split each
    # email message into a separate item in the list chosen_mailbox_items_list
    if len(data) > 0:
        chosen_mailbox_items_list = data[0].split()
        # Iterating each email message and appending to emails_messages_data_list
        for item in chosen_mailbox_items_list:
            typ, email_data = mail.fetch(item, '(RFC 822)')
            # Decoding from binary string to string
            raw_email = email_data[0][1].decode("utf-8")
            # Turning the email data into an email object
            email_message = email.message_from_string(raw_email)
            # Appending the email message data to email_messages_data_list
            email_messages_data_list.append(email_message)
    return email_messages_data_list


@output_handler
def main(is_test_run):
    alerts = [] # The main output of each connector run that contains the alerts data 
    siemplify = SiemplifyConnectorExecution() # Siemplify main SDK wrapper
    siemplify.script_name = CONNECTOR_NAME

    # In case of running a test
    if (is_test_run):
        siemplify.LOGGER.info("This is an \"IDE Play Button\"\\\"Run Connector once\" test run")

    # Extracting the connector's Params
    username = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="Username") 
    password = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="Password") 
    imap_host = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="IMAP Server Address")
    imap_port = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="IMAP Port")
    folder_to_check = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="Folder to check for emails")

    # Getting the digested email message data
    email_messages_data_list = get_email_messages_data(imap_host, imap_port, username, password, folder_to_check)
    # If the email_messages_data_list is not empty
    if len(email_messages_data_list) > 0:
        for message in email_messages_data_list:
            # Converting the email message datetime from string to unix time by SiemplifyUtils functions
            datetime_email_message = message['Date']
            string_to_datetime = convert_string_to_datetime(datetime_email_message)
            datetime_in_unix_time = convert_datetime_to_unix_time(string_to_datetime)
            found_urls_in_email_body = find_url_in_email_message_body(siemplify, email_messages_data_list)
            # Getting the unique id of each email message and removing the suffix '@mail.gmail.com' from the Message-ID, Each alert id can be ingested to the system only once.
            alert_id = message['Message-ID'].replace('@mail.gmail.com','') 
            # Creating the event by calling create_event() function 
            created_event = create_event(siemplify, alert_id, message, found_urls_in_email_body, datetime_in_unix_time) 
            # Creating the alert by calling create_alert() function 
            created_alert = create_alert(siemplify, alert_id, message, datetime_in_unix_time, created_event)
            # Checking that the created_alert is not None 
            if created_alert is not None: 
                alerts.append(created_alert) 
                siemplify.LOGGER.info(f'Added Alert {alert_id} to package results')
    # If the inbox for the user has no unread emails. 
    else: 
        siemplify.LOGGER.info(f'The inbox for user {username} has no unread emails') 
    # Returning all the created alerts to the cases module in Siemplify 
    siemplify.return_package(alerts) 


if __name__ == '__main__':
# Connectors run in iterations. The interval is configurable from the ConnectorsScreen UI. 
    is_test_run = not (len(sys.argv) < 2 or sys.argv[1] == 'True') 
    main(is_test_run)
  2. After copying the connector's code, review the necessary modules to be imported and then proceed to the main function. Each method called from the main function will be discussed later in more detail.

Relevant imports

A Python module has a set of functions, classes, or variables defined and implemented. To implement all the following functions, import those modules into the script:

from SiemplifyConnectors import SiemplifyConnectorExecution # This module is responsible for executing the connector 
from SiemplifyConnectorsDataModel import AlertInfo # The data model that contains the alert info class
from SiemplifyUtils import output_handler, convert_datetime_to_unix_time, convert_string_to_datetime # The functions that convert time 
import email, imaplib, sys, re

Main function

The Main function is the script's entry point. The Python interpreter runs the code sequentially and calls each method defined in the script.

  1. Extract the connector parameters. Use the siemplify.extract_connector_param function to extract each configured parameter for the connector (username, password, imap_host, imap_port, folder_to_check). 
    # Extracting the connector's Params
    username = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="Username") 
    password = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="Password") 
    imap_host = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="IMAP Server Address") 
    imap_port = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="IMAP Port") 
    folder_to_check = siemplify.extract_connector_param(param_name="Folder to check for emails")
  2. Use the function get_email_messages_data (`imap_host`, `imap_port`, `username`, `password`, `folder_to_check) to collect all information from the unread emails. 
    # Getting the digested email message data 
    email_messages_data_list = get_email_messages_data(imap_host, imap_port, username, password, folder_to_check)
  3. After you receive all information from the email, confirm that the information is collected, and then perform these actions on each email:
    # If the email_messages_data_list is not empty 
if len(email_messages_data_list) > 0:
   for message in email_messages_data_list:
       # Converting the email message datetime from string to unix time by SiemplifyUtils functions
    This code extracts the message date by datetime_email_message = message['Date']and then converts this date time to Unix epoch time using Google SecOps functions:
    string_to_datetime = convert_string_to_datetime(datetime_email_message) 
datetime_in_unix_time = convert_datetime_to_unix_time(string_to_datetime)
  4. Search for URLs in the email message body using the find_url_in_email_message_body(siemplify_email_messages_data_list) function. If a URL is found, use other products in our playbook to check if it is malicious.
    5. found_urls_in_email_body = find_url_in_email_message_body(siemplify, email_messages_data_list)
  5. Extract the unique ID of each email message, and assign it to the alert_id variable: 
    # Getting the unique id of each email message and removing the suffix '@mail.gmail.com' from the Message-ID, Each alert id can be ingested to the system only once. 
alert_id = message['Message-ID'].replace('@mail.gmail.com','')
  6. After you extract all the necessary details to ingest the alert into the Google SecOps platform, create the alert and the event:
    # Creating the event by calling create_event() function 
created_event = create_event(siemplify, alert_id, message, found_urls_in_email_body, datetime_in_unix_time) 
# Creating the alert by calling create_alert() function 
created_alert = create_alert(siemplify, alert_id, message, datetime_in_unix_time, created_event)
  7. Validate the created alert and the created event. After validating, add the alert to the alert list. 
        # Checking that the created_alert is not None 
    if created_alert is not None: 
        alerts.append(created_alert)     
        siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"Added Alert {alert_id} to package results")
  8. In a scenario where the inbox for the given user has no unread emails, add the following code: 
    else:
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"The inbox for user {username} has no unread emails")
  9. Return the alerts list to the system and each alert is then presented as a case in the case queue: 
        # Returning all the created alerts to the cases module in Siemplify 
    siemplify.return_package(alerts)
  10. Run the Main function within the times you set in the connector configuration: 
    if __name__ == "__main__": 
    # Connectors run in iterations. The interval is configurable from the Connectors UI. 
    is_test_run = not (len(sys.argv) < 2 or sys.argv[1] == 'True')
    main(is_test_run)

Get the unread email message

The Get the unread email message function connects to the email with the Imap and Email modules, and retrieves the email message details. It also returns a list containing all the information of all the unread email messages.

  1. From the main class, use the function: get_email_messages_data(imap_host, imap_port, username, password, folder_to_check). 
    def get_email_messages_data(imap_host, imap_port, username, password, folder_to_check):
    """Returns all unread email messages"""
    email_messages_data_list = []
  2. Connect to the email by using the imap module: 
        # Login to email using 'imap' module
    mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(imap_host, imap_port)
    mail.login(username, password)
  3. Determine the folder in the email to check for unread messages. In this example, you extract emails from the Inbox folder (DEFAULT_FOLDER_TO_CHECK_INBOX = "inbox"):
    4. # Determining the default email folder to pull emails from - 'inbox'
if folder_to_check is None:
    folder_to_check = DEFAULT_FOLDER_TO_CHECK_INBOX
# Selecting the email folder to pull the data from mail.select(folder_to_check)
  4. Collect all unread messages DEFAULT_MESSAGES_TO_READ_UNSEEN = "UNSEEN", and then convert this data to a list: 
    # Storing the email message data
result, data = mail.search(None, DEFAULT_MESSAGES_TO_READ_UNSEEN)
# If there are several emails collected in the cycle it will split each
# email message into a separate item in the list chosen_mailbox_items_list
if len(data) > 0:
    chosen_mailbox_items_list = data[0].split()
    # Iterating each email message and appending to emails_messages_data_list
    for item in chosen_mailbox_items_list:
        typ, email_data = mail.fetch(item, '(RFC 822)')
        # Decoding from binary string to string
        raw_email = email_data[0][1].decode("utf-8")
        # Turning the email data into an email object
        email_message = email.message_from_string(raw_email)
        # Appending the email message data to email_messages_data_list
        email_messages_data_list.append(email_message)
return email_messages_data_list

Create the event

The Create the event function creates the event by associating each email message component to the event fields, respectively.

  1. From the main class create the event by using the function: create_event(siemplify, alert_id, email_message_data, all_found_url_in_emails_body_list, datetime_in_unix_time)
    2. def create_event(siemplify, alert_id, email_message_data, all_found_url_in_emails_body_list, datetime_in_unix_time):
    """Returns the digested data of a single unread email"""
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"--- Started processing Event: alert_id: {alert_id} | event_id: {alert_id}")
  2. Create a dictionary for the event fields. The mandatory fields are event["StartTime"], event["EndTime"], event["event_name"] and event["device_product"] : 
    3. event = {} 
event["StartTime"] = datetime_in_unix_time # Time should be saved in UnixTime. You may use SiemplifyUtils.convert_datetime_to_unix_time, or SiemplifyUtils.convert_string_to_datetime 
event["EndTime"] = datetime_in_unix_time # Time should be saved in UnixTime. You may use SiemplifyUtils.convert_datetime_to_unix_time, or SiemplifyUtils.convert_string_to_datetime 
event["event_name"] = "Suspicious email" 
event["device_product"] = PRODUCT # ie: "device_product" is the field name that describes the product the event originated from. 
event["Subject"] = email_message_data["Subject"] 
event["SourceUserName"] = email_message_data["From"] 
event["DestinationUserName"] = email_message_data["To"] 
event["found_url"] = ",".join(all_found_url_in_emails_body_list) 
siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"---Finished processing Event: alert_id: {alert_id} | event_id: {alert_id}")
return event
  3. Each alert contains one or more events. In this example, an alert contains a single event: one email message. Therefore, after creating the event, create the alert that contains all the event information.

Create the alert info and initialize the alert information characteristics fields

This function creates the alert. Each alert contains one or more events within it. In this case, each alert contains one event which is basically one email message.

  1. From the main class, create the alert:
    def create_alert(siemplify, alert_id, email_message_data,datetime_in_unix_time, created_event): 
    """Returns an alert which is one event that contains one unread email message"""
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"-------------- Started processing Alert {alert_id}")
    create_event = None
  2. Create the alert_info instance and initialize it: 
    # Initializes the alert_info Characteristics Fields 
alert_info.display_id = f"{alert_id}" 
alert_info.ticket_id = f"{alert_id}" 
alert_info.name = email_message_data['Subject'] 
alert_info.rule_generator = RULE_GENERATOR_EXAMPLE 
alert_info.start_time = datetime_in_unix_time 
alert_info.end_time = datetime_in_unix_time 
alert_info.device_vendor = VENDOR 
alert_info.device_product = PRODUCT
  3. After you create the alert, validate the event and append it to the aert_info characteristics:
    4. siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"Events creating started for alert {alert_id}")
try:
    if created_event is not None:
        alert_info.events.append(created_event)
    siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"Added Event {alert_id} to Alert {alert_id}")
# Raise an exception if failed to process the event
except Exception as e:
    siemplify.LOGGER.error(f"Failed to process event {alert_id}")
    siemplify.LOGGER.exception(e)
return alert_info

Find the URL in the email body function

The find the URL in the email body function scans the email body for URLs. To use this function, follow these steps:

  1. For each email message, locate the part of the message body with plain text content:
    2. def find_url_in_email_message_body(siemplify, email_messages_data_list):
    """
    Search for a url in the email body,
    """
    all_found_url_in_emails_body_list = []
    for message in email_messages_data_list:
        for part in message.walk():
            if part.get_content_maintype() == 'text\plain':
                continue
  2. If the body contains the required content, load this information with email_message_body = part.get_payload(), and search for URLs using the regular expression:
    3. 
URLS_REGEX=r"http[s]?://(?:[a-zA-Z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+]|[!*\(\),]|(?:%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]))+"
  3. This example extracts URLs from the email body:
    4. email_message_body = part.get_payload()
all_found_urls = re.findall(URLS_REGEX, str(email_message_body))
for url in all_found_urls:
    if url not in all_found_url_in_emails_body_list:
        all_found_url_in_emails_body_list.append(url)
siemplify.LOGGER.info(f"The URL found : {all_found_url_in_emails_body_list}") 
return all_found_url_in_emails_body_list
  4. After reviewing the connector code, you can configure a connector to ingest cases into the platform from a selected Gmail inbox.

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