Potential Secure File Deletion via SDelete Utility

Detects file name patterns generated by the use of the Sysinternals SDelete utility to securely delete a file via multiple file overwrite and rename operations.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*
logs-windows.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

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: 6

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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## Triage and analysis

Verify process details such as command line and hash to confirm this activity legitimacy.

## Config

If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.

Rule query

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file where event.type == "change" and file.name : "*AAA.AAA"

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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