System Shutdown/Reboot T1529

Tactic: Impact

Adversaries may shutdown/reboot systems to interrupt access to, or aid in the destruction of, those systems. Operating systems may contain commands to initiate a shutdown/reboot of a machine or network device. In some cases, these commands may also be used to initiate a shutdown/reboot of a remote computer or network device via Network Device CLI (e.g. reload). They may also include shutdown/reboot of a virtual machine via hypervisor / cloud consoles or command line tools.

Events covered

8 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 35 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.

FieldRulesHowSample values
CommandLine8contains 8, in 3, ends_with 1* -f*, * -t*, echo b > , * -l*, * -r*
ControlName_s7eq 7ApplicationNotUsingClientCredentials, AzureSecureScoreAdminMFAV2, AzureSecureScoreOneAdmin, AzureSecureScoreRoleOverlap, AzureSecureScoreSelfServicePasswordReset
Image5ends_with 5\shutdown.exe, /esxcli, /halt, /launchctl, /reboot
SyslogMessage4contains 4vmpoweredoffevent, free space, patch store disk, temp directory
process_name4eq 3, in 1shutdown.exe, bash, dash, sudo
EventType3contains 2, eq 1asset down, baseline deviation, exec
OriginalFileName3eq 3shutdown.exe
sourcetype3eq 2, in 1auditd, azure:monitor:activity, vmw-syslog, vmware:esxlog*
type3eq 3PATH, CWD, EXECVE
EventOriginalType2contains 2asset down, baseline deviation
azure.activitylogs.operation_name2eq 2MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/PODS/DELETE, MICROSOFT.RESOURCES/SUBSCRIPTIONS/RESOURCEGROUPS/DELETE
data_stream.dataset2eq 2azure.activitylogs
event.outcome2in 2Success, success
sp2lt 210, 100
DbAction1eq 1SHUTDOWN

Top indicator values (100 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.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
CommandLinecontains
shutdown
34
CommandLinecontains
echo b >
1
CommandLinecontains
-9
1
CommandLinecontains
-kill
1
CommandLinecontains
/l
1
CommandLinecontains
/r
1
CommandLinecontains
/s
13
CommandLinecontains
disable
113
CommandLinecontains
kill
1
CommandLinecontains
remove
14
CommandLinecontains
sigkill
1
CommandLinecontains
stop
17
CommandLinecontains
unload
15
CommandLinecontains
vm process
12
CommandLinein
* -f*
33
CommandLinein
* -t*
33
CommandLinein
* /f*
35
CommandLinein
* /t*
34
CommandLinein
* -l*
1
CommandLinein
* -r*
12
CommandLinein
* -s*
12
OriginalFileNameeq
shutdown.exe
33
process_nameeq
shutdown.exe
34
Imageends_with
\shutdown.exe
22
SyslogMessagecontains
vmpoweredoffevent
23
data_stream.dataseteq
azure.activitylogs
234
event.outcomein
Success
237
event.outcomein
success
238
typeeq
PATH
219
CommandLineends_with
/proc/sysrq-trigger
1

Exclusions (1 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.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
usereq
0
1

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.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Sigma 9 rules

Elastic 2 rules

Splunk 9 rules

Kusto 15 rules