Service Stop T1489
Tactic: Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users. Stopping critical services or processes can inhibit or stop response to an incident or aid in the adversary's overall objectives to cause damage to the environment.
Events covered
16 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Sysmon | Event ID 5 | Process terminated |
| 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) |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4656 | A handle to an object was requested. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| Linux-Auditd | Event ID 1302 | PATH |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4103 | Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
| TaskScheduler | Event ID 141 | User "TaskName" deleted Task Scheduler task "Name". |
| TaskScheduler | Event ID 142 | User "TaskName" disabled Task Scheduler task "Name". |
| MsiInstaller | Event ID 1034 | Product: Data_0. |
| MsiInstaller | Event ID 11724 | Event ID 11724 |
| Service-Control-Manager | Event ID 7040 | The start type of the msdsm service was changed from boot start to demand start. |
| Sysmon-for-Linux | Event ID 1 | Process Create |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 78 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 (72 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 (568 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 (38 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 26 rules
- Application Uninstalled
- Azure Application Deleted
- Azure Container Registry Created or Deleted
- Azure Kubernetes Cluster Created or Deleted
- Azure Kubernetes Network Policy Change
- Azure Kubernetes RoleBinding/ClusterRoleBinding Modified and Deleted
- Azure Kubernetes Secret or Config Object Access
- Azure Kubernetes Sensitive Role Access
- Azure Kubernetes Service Account Modified or Deleted
- Delete All Scheduled Tasks
- Delete Important Scheduled Task
- Disable Important Scheduled Task
- Disable Or Stop Services
- Important Scheduled Task Deleted or Disabled
- macOS Service Disruption Activity
- Mass Process Termination
- Massive processes termination burst
- Massive services deletion burst
- Massive services termination burst
- Potential Abuse of Linux Magic System Request Key
- Process Terminated Via Taskkill
- Service deactivation (command)
- Stop Windows Service Via Net.EXE
- Stop Windows Service Via PowerShell Stop-Service
- Stop Windows Service Via Sc.EXE
- Suspicious Windows Service Tampering
Elastic 20 rules
- Attempt to Deactivate an Okta Application
- Attempt to Delete an Okta Application
- Attempt to Disable Auditd Service
- Attempt to Disable IPTables or Firewall
- Attempt to Disable Syslog Service
- AWS EventBridge Rule Disabled or Deleted
- Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) Kubernetes Pods Deleted
- Azure Resource Group Deleted
- Azure Storage Account Deletion by Unusual User
- Azure Storage Account Deletions by User
- Decline in host-based traffic
- Elastic Agent Service Terminated
- GCP Pub/Sub Subscription Deletion
- GCP Pub/Sub Topic Deletion
- High Number of Process and/or Service Terminations
- High Number of Process Terminations
- Kill Command Execution
- Process Killing Detected via Defend for Containers
- Service Disabled via Registry Modification
- Suspicious Termination of ESXI Process
Splunk 22 rules
- Excessive Attempt To Disable Services
- Linux Auditd Auditd Service Stop
- Linux Auditd Osquery Service Stop
- Linux Auditd Stop Services
- Linux Auditd Sysmon Service Stop
- Linux Disable Services
- Linux Magic SysRq Key Abuse
- Linux Stop Services
- Ollama Abnormal Service Crash Availability Attack
- Service Stop Commands (PowerShell)
- Service Stop Commands (Sysmon)
- Service Stop Commands (Windows Event Log)
- Windows - Service Stop (PowerShell)
- Windows - Service Stop (Windows Event Log)
- Windows Excessive Service Stop Attempt
- Windows Processes Killed By Industroyer2 Malware
- Windows Security Account Manager Stopped
- Windows Service Deletion In Registry
- Windows Service Stop Attempt
- Windows Service Stop By Deletion
- Windows Service Stop Win Updates
- Windows Set Account Password Policy To Unlimited Via Net
Kusto 6 rules
- BTP - Mass user deletion in a sub account
- BTP - Mass user deletion in SAP Cloud Identity Service
- Cisco Duo - AD sync failed
- Critical or High Severity Detections by User
- Multiple Teams deleted by a single user
- Workspace deletion activity from an infected device