Failed Event Log Clear Via WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: product windows, service wmi
Author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects failed attempts to clear Windows event logs via the WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog method. Event 5858 in the WMI-Activity operational log is an error event, meaning it is only generated when the WMI operation encounters an error (e.g. access denied, provider failure). It could be an indication of an attacker attempting to clear event logs via WMI, but failing due to insufficient privileges or other issues. Successful clearing operations will NOT produce this event; for those, correlate with Security event 1102 or System event 104.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Defense Impairment	`T1685.005` Disable or Modify Tools: Clear Windows Event Logs

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
WMI-Activity	Event ID 5858: Id = Operation_ClientFailure.Id; ClientMachine = Operation_ClientFailure.ClientMachine; User = Operation_ClientFailure.User; ClientProcessId = Operation_ClientFailure.ClientProcessId; Component = O...

Rule body

title: Failed Event Log Clear Via WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog
id: d4f1a2b3-7c8e-4d5f-b6a9-1e0c2d3f4e5b
status: test
description: |
    Detects failed attempts to clear Windows event logs via the WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog method.
    Event 5858 in the WMI-Activity operational log is an error event, meaning it is only generated
    when the WMI operation encounters an error (e.g. access denied, provider failure).
    It could be an indication of an attacker attempting to clear event logs via WMI, but failing due to insufficient privileges or other issues.
    Successful clearing operations will NOT produce this event; for those, correlate with
    Security event 1102 or System event 104.
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/cimwin32prov/cleareventlog-method-in-class-win32-nteventlogfile
author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
date: 2026-07-01
tags:
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1685.005
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: wmi
detection:
    selection:
        EventID: 5858
        Operation|contains|all:
            - 'Win32_NTEventlogFile'
            - 'cleareventlog'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium
regression_tests_path: regression_data/rules/windows/builtin/wmi/win_wmi_activity_nteventlogfile_cleareventlog/info.yml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    EventID: 5858
    Operation|contains|all:
        - 'Win32_NTEventlogFile'
        - 'cleareventlog'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`Operation`	match	`Win32_NTEventlogFile` `cleareventlog`	`field:"Operation" kind:match`