Process Termination followed by Deletion

edit

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&CKTM