Malicious Windows Event Log Clearing via wevtutil (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

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

What it detects

This rule detects clearing of the Security, System and Application event logs using wevtutil, an anti-forensic action performed by RansomHub per Group-IB. Adversaries clear event logs to destroy evidence of intrusion and encryption, so this activity is a strong indicator of active compromise cleanup.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685.005 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Windows Event Log and Backup Clearing by BabLock Ransomware

Malicious Windows Event Log Clearing via Wevtutil

Malicious Security Event Log Disabled via wevtutil

Suspicious Event Log Clearing via Wevtutil (via process_creation)

Suspicious Mass Windows Event Log Clearing via PowerShell (via ps_script)

Malicious Event Log Clear Attempt - Wmi (via process_creation)

Malicious Event Log Clear Attempt - Command (via process_creation)

Malicious Event Log Cleared Using Diagnostics - Via PowerShell (via powershell)

Malicious Clearing of Windows Event Logs (via process_creation)

Malicious Windows Event Log Clearing via wevtutil (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1685.005 · 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 →