Indicator Removal: File Deletion T1070.004
Tactic: Stealth
Adversaries may delete files left behind by the actions of their intrusion activity. Malware, tools, or other non-native files dropped or created on a system by an adversary (ex: Ingress Tool Transfer) may leave traces to indicate to what was done within a network and how. Removal of these files can occur during an intrusion, or as part of a post-intrusion process to minimize the adversary's footprint.
Events covered
14 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Sysmon | Event ID 12 | RegistryEvent (Object create and delete) |
| Sysmon | Event ID 13 | RegistryEvent (Value Set) |
| Sysmon | Event ID 14 | RegistryEvent (Key and Value Rename) |
| Sysmon | Event ID 23 | FileDelete (File Delete archived) |
| Sysmon | Event ID 26 | FileDeleteDetected (File Delete logged) |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4656 | A handle to an object was requested. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4658 | The handle to an object was closed. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4663 | An attempt was made to access an object. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| Event ID 0 | Event ID 0 | |
| Backup | Event ID 524 | The system catalog has been deleted. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
| Sysmon-for-Linux | Event ID 1 | Process Create |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 46 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (29 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (258 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (55 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 17 rules
- ADS Zone.Identifier Deleted
- ADS Zone.Identifier Deleted By Uncommon Application
- Backup Catalog Deleted
- Cisco File Deletion
- Directory Removal Via Rmdir
- File Deleted Via Sysinternals SDelete
- File Deletion
- File Deletion Via Del
- Greedy File Deletion Using Del
- macOS Data Destruction Tools
- macOS ESF Deletion In Sensitive Directories
- Potential Secure Deletion with SDelete
- Potentially Suspicious Ping/Copy Command Combination
- Prefetch File Deleted
- Suspicious Ping/Del Command Combination
- TeamViewer Log File Deleted
- Use Of Remove-Item to Delete File - ScriptBlock
Elastic 13 rules
- Delete Volume USN Journal with Fsutil
- File Creation, Execution and Self-Deletion in Suspicious Directory
- File Deletion via Shred
- File or Directory Deletion Command
- Ingress Tool Transfer Followed by Execution and Deletion Detected via Defend for Containers
- Kubernetes Events Deleted
- Potential REMCOS Trojan Execution
- Potential Secure File Deletion via SDelete Utility
- SSH Authorized Keys File Deletion
- SSL Certificate Deletion
- Suspicious Print Spooler File Deletion
- System Log File Deletion
- WebServer Access Logs Deleted
Splunk 15 rules
- Clear Unallocated Sector Using Cipher App
- Linux Account Manipulation Of SSH Config and Keys
- Linux Deletion Of Cron Jobs
- Linux Deletion Of Init Daemon Script
- Linux Deletion Of Services
- Linux Deletion of SSL Certificate
- Linux High Frequency Of File Deletion In Boot Folder
- Linux High Frequency Of File Deletion In Etc Folder
- Linux Indicator Removal Service File Deletion
- Recursive Delete of Directory In Batch CMD
- Sdelete Application Execution
- Windows Default Rdp File Deletion
- Windows Rdp AutomaticDestinations Deletion
- Windows RDP Cache File Deletion
- Windows RDP Server Registry Deletion