Detection rules › Kusto

Potential re-named sdelete usage (ASIM Version)

Severity
low
Time window
1h
Author
Microsoft Security Research
Source
github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

This detection looks for command line parameters associated with the use of Sysinternals sdelete (https://docs.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/sdelete) to delete multiple files on a host's C drive. A threat actor may re-name the tool to avoid detection and then use it for destructive attacks on a host. This detection uses the ASIM imProcess parser, this will need to be deployed before use - https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/sentinel/normalization

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
StealthT1036 Masquerading
ImpactT1485 Data Destruction

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

id: 5b6ae038-f66e-4f74-9315-df52fd492be4
name: Potential re-named sdelete usage (ASIM Version)
description: |
  'This detection looks for command line parameters associated with the use of Sysinternals sdelete (https://docs.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/sdelete) to delete multiple files on a host's C drive.
  A threat actor may re-name the tool to avoid detection and then use it for destructive attacks on a host.
  This detection uses the ASIM imProcess parser, this will need to be deployed before use - https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/sentinel/normalization'
severity: Low
requiredDataConnectors: []
queryFrequency: 1h
queryPeriod: 1h
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - DefenseEvasion
  - Impact
relevantTechniques:
  - T1485
  - T1036
query: |
  imProcess
  | where CommandLine has_all ("accepteula", "-s", "-r", "-q")
  | where Process !endswith "sdelete.exe"
  | where CommandLine !has "sdelete"
  | extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUsername, @'\')[1]), AccountNTDomain = tostring(split(ActorUsername, @'\')[0])
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: ActorUsername
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: AccountName
      - identifier: NTDomain
        columnName: AccountNTDomain
  - entityType: Host
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: Dvc
      - identifier: HostName
        columnName: DvcHostname
      - identifier: DnsDomain
        columnName: DvcDomain
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: DvcIpAddr
version: 1.0.6
kind: Scheduled
metadata:
    source:
        kind: Community
    author:
        name: Microsoft Security Research
    support:
        tier: Community
    categories:
        domains: [ "Security - Threat Protection" ]

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: source

imProcess

Stage 2: where

| where CommandLine has_all ("accepteula", "-s", "-r", "-q")

Stage 3: where

| where Process !endswith "sdelete.exe"

Stage 4: where

| where CommandLine !has "sdelete"

Stage 5: extend

| extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUsername, @'\')[1]), AccountNTDomain = tostring(split(ActorUsername, @'\')[0])

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

FieldKindExcluded values
Processends_withsdelete.exe
CommandLinematchsdelete

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • -q corpus 9 (sigma 6, kusto 2, splunk 1)
  • -r corpus 13 (sigma 9, kusto 4)
  • -s corpus 10 (sigma 4, kusto 4, elastic 1, splunk 1)
  • accepteula corpus 7 (sigma 3, kusto 3, splunk 1)

Output fields

Fields the rule emits when it matches. Chronicle authors list these in the outcome block; they appear on the detection and $risk_score drives alerting. Sentinel / Defender XDR rules build them up through project / summarize / extend stages. Sentinel maps these into alert fields via entityMappings and customDetails; Defender XDR custom detections surface them as alert fields directly.

FieldSource
AccountNTDomainextend
AccountNameextend