ETW Trace Evasion Activity

Status: test
Severity: high
Log source: product windows, category process_creation
Author: @neu5ron, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects command line activity that tries to clear or disable any ETW trace log which could be a sign of logging evasion.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Stealth	`T1070` Indicator Removal
Defense Impairment	`T1685` Disable or Modify Tools

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688	A new process has been created.

Rule body yaml

title: ETW Trace Evasion Activity
id: a238b5d0-ce2d-4414-a676-7a531b3d13d6
status: test
description: |
    Detects command line activity that tries to clear or disable any ETW trace log which could be a sign of logging evasion.
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/wevtutil
    - https://abuse.io/lockergoga.txt
    - https://medium.com/palantir/tampering-with-windows-event-tracing-background-offense-and-defense-4be7ac62ac63
author: '@neu5ron, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community'
date: 2019-03-22
modified: 2022-06-28
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1070
    - attack.t1685
    - car.2016-04-002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_clear_1:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'cl'
            - '/Trace'
    selection_clear_2:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'clear-log'
            - '/Trace'
    selection_disable_1:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'sl'
            - '/e:false'
    selection_disable_2:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'set-log'
            - '/e:false'
    selection_disable_3:   # ETW provider removal from a trace session
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'logman'
            - 'update'
            - 'trace'
            - '--p'
            - '-ets'
    selection_pwsh_remove:   # Autologger provider removal
        CommandLine|contains: 'Remove-EtwTraceProvider'
    selection_pwsh_set:   # Provider “Enable” property modification
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'Set-EtwTraceProvider'
            - '0x11'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

1 of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_clear_1`

selection_clear_1:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'cl'
        - '/Trace'

Stage 2: `selection_clear_2`

selection_clear_2:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'clear-log'
        - '/Trace'

Stage 3: `selection_disable_1`

selection_disable_1:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'sl'
        - '/e:false'

Stage 4: `selection_disable_2`

selection_disable_2:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'set-log'
        - '/e:false'

Stage 5: `selection_disable_3`

selection_disable_3:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'logman'
        - 'update'
        - 'trace'
        - '--p'
        - '-ets'

Stage 6: `selection_pwsh_remove`

selection_pwsh_remove:
    CommandLine|contains: 'Remove-EtwTraceProvider'

Stage 7: `selection_pwsh_set`

selection_pwsh_set:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'Set-EtwTraceProvider'
        - '0x11'

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.

Field	Kind	Values
`CommandLine`	match	`--p` `-ets` `/Trace` `/e:false` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `0x11` `Remove-EtwTraceProvider` `Set-EtwTraceProvider` `cl` corpus 3 (sigma 2, kusto 1) `clear-log` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `logman` `set-log` corpus 2 (sigma 1, splunk 1) `sl` corpus 2 (sigma 1, splunk 1) `trace` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `update`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

ETW Trace Evasion Activity

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_clear_1`

Stage 2: `selection_clear_2`

Stage 3: `selection_disable_1`

Stage 4: `selection_disable_2`

Stage 5: `selection_disable_3`

Stage 6: `selection_pwsh_remove`

Stage 7: `selection_pwsh_set`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

ETW Trace Evasion Activity

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_clear_1

Stage 2: selection_clear_2

Stage 3: selection_disable_1

Stage 4: selection_disable_2

Stage 5: selection_disable_3

Stage 6: selection_pwsh_remove

Stage 7: selection_pwsh_set

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_clear_1`

Stage 2: `selection_clear_2`

Stage 3: `selection_disable_1`

Stage 4: `selection_disable_2`

Stage 5: `selection_disable_3`

Stage 6: `selection_pwsh_remove`

Stage 7: `selection_pwsh_set`