Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion for Recovery Inhibition

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1047Windows Management Instrumentation
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, the recovery-inhibition step used by the Handala group and many destructive operations before encryption or wiping. Removing shadow copies prevents victims from restoring affected files. Administrative shadow copy deletion on endpoints is uncommon and warrants review alongside other impact indicators.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1490 — drag to rearrange

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

Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion Via WMI

Windows Process Creation: Maze Ransomware Doc Dropper and Shadow Copy Deletion Indicators

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via Vssadmin

Malicious Boot Configuration Tampering via bcdedit [Intel471] #2

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion Before Ransomware Encryption

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

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin

Suspicious WMIC Remote Process Creation for Lateral Movement

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion for Recovery Inhibition

Pivot detection · T1490 · 9 related

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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