Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion Before Ransomware Encryption

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
- T1490Inhibit System Recovery

What it detects

This rule detects deletion of Volume Shadow Copies through vssadmin, wmic or PowerShell, an inhibit-recovery step the Qilin ransomware group performs before encrypting files. Removing shadow copies prevents victims from restoring data without paying. This activity almost always precedes or accompanies encryption.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1490 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via Vssadmin or WMIC (via process_creation)

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin

Malicious DragonForce Shadow Copy Deletion via Native Utilities (via process_creation)

Suspicious Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC or PowerShell (via process_creation)

Malicious Boot Recovery Tampering via bcdedit (via process_creation)

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via BlackSuit Ransomware

Malicious Boot Configuration Tampering to Disable Recovery via BlackSuit Ransomware

Malicious Boot Configuration Tampering via bcdedit

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMI PowerShell

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion Before Ransomware Encryption

Pivot detection · T1490 · 9 related

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