Suspicious Free Space Wipe via cipher.exe

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
- T1485Data Destruction
- T1490Inhibit System Recovery

What it detects

This rule detects cipher.exe invoked with the /w switch to overwrite unallocated disk space, an anti-recovery action used by the fake AI-tool installer ransomware to prevent carving of deleted originals. Wiping free space alongside encryption inhibits data recovery and signals destructive intent on the host.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1490 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via wmic and vssadmin (via process_creation)

Malicious System Recovery Inhibition via bcdedit and vssadmin in Mallox

Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Suspicious Anti-Recovery Zeroing via fsutil setZeroData (via process_creation)

Malicious Shadow Copy Removal via WMI PowerShell

Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin

Malicious Inhibit System Recovery via Shadow Copy and Boot Config Tampering (via process_creation)

Suspicious Self-Deleting Batch Script Execution Consistent with Agonizing Serpens Wiper Cleanup

Malicious Mass Device Wipe via Intune Remote Actions (via m365)

Suspicious Free Space Wipe via cipher.exe

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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