BitLocker Feature Installation via ServerManagerCmd or PowerShell (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
- T1486Data Encrypted for Impact

What it detects

This rule detects on-demand installation of the BitLocker Windows feature through ServerManagerCmd or Install-WindowsFeature, the enabling step ShrinkLocker performs on systems where BitLocker is absent before hijacking it to encrypt drives. Adversaries leverage the native BitLocker feature to lock victim data without dropping a custom encryptor, so this behavior warrants review on hosts where BitLocker deployment is unexpected.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1486 — drag to rearrange

Possible Akira Ransomware Note or Encrypted Extension Creation

Malicious Storm-2603 Ransom Note File Creation

Possible Ransomware Note or Encrypted File Extension Creation

BitLocker Feature Activation on Multiple Hosts - Native (via bitlocker)

FunkSec Ransomware Encryption Artifacts via funksec Extension and Markdown Ransom Note (via file_event)

INC Ransomware Ransom Note INC-README Written to Disk (via file_event)

Malicious DEVMAN Ransomware Encrypted File and Note Artifacts

Malicious Akira Ransomware Encrypted File Extension via File Event

Malicious BitLocker Abuse for Ransomware via PowerShell (via ps_script)

BitLocker Feature Installation via ServerManagerCmd or PowerShell (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1486 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →