Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin by Medusa Ransomware

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 use of vssadmin to delete all volume shadow copies quietly, matching the inhibit-recovery step performed by Medusa ransomware before encryption per Unit 42. Ransomware wipes shadow copies to prevent victims from restoring files which is a strong pre-encryption indicator of an active ransomware attack.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1490 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell WMI by Akira Ransomware

VSS Backup Deletion or Resize (via process_creation)

Malicious Boot Recovery Tampering via Bcdedit (via process_creation)

Malicious Inhibition of System Recovery via Shadow Copy or Backup Deletion (via process_creation)

Malicious Windows Native Backup Deletion (via process_creation)

DragonForce Ransomware Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC ShadowCopy Where Delete (via process_creation)

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via Vssadmin

Malicious ESXi Virtual Machine Termination and Snapshot Removal

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin by Medusa Ransomware

Pivot detection · T1490 · 9 related

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