Process Termination followed by Deletion

Identifies a process termination event quickly followed by the deletion of its executable file. Malware tools and other non-native files dropped or created on a system by an adversary may leave traces to indicate to what occurred. Removal of these files can occur during an intrusion, or as part of a post-intrusion process to minimize the adversary’s footprint.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 100

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

sequence by host.id with maxspan=5s
   [process where event.type == "end" and
    process.code_signature.trusted == false and
    not process.executable : ("C:\\Windows\\SoftwareDistribution\\*.exe", "C:\\Windows\\WinSxS\\*.exe")
   ] by process.executable
   [file where event.type == "deletion" and file.extension : ("exe", "scr", "com") and
    not process.executable :
             ("?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
              "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe",
              "?:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe",
              "?:\\Windows\\System32\\drvinst.exe") and
    not file.path : ("?:\\Program Files\\*.exe", "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe")
   ] by file.path

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: Indicator Removal on Host
- ID: T1070
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1070/
Sub-technique:
- Name: File Deletion
- ID: T1070.004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1070/004/

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