Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion Via WMI
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-09-10
- Updated
- 2026-09-10
ATT&CK techniques
Execution → ImpactRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
What it detects
This rule detects PowerShell querying Win32_Shadowcopy and piping the result to Remove-WmiObject to delete volume shadow copies. Akira ransomware used Get-WmiObject Win32_Shadowcopy piped to Remove-WmiObject to destroy shadow copies before encryption. Deleting shadow copies is an inhibit-recovery action that prevents victims from restoring files without paying the ransom.
Reporting behind it
- blog.talosintelligence.comhttps://blog.talosintelligence.com/akira-ransomware-continues-to-evolve/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1490/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/001/
- huntress.comhttps://www.huntress.com/blog/dispelling-ransomware-deployment-myths
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1047/
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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