huntrule

Suspicious Prefetch Deletion for Anti-Forensics

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-05-27
Updated
2026-08-28
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects deletion of files from the Windows Prefetch directory, an anti-forensic action The Gentlemen ransomware used to remove execution artifacts alongside Defender logs. Clearing Prefetch data is a deliberate attempt to hinder investigation and indicates active cleanup by an intruder.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Self-Deletion Via Fsutil SetZeroData
Self-Deletion via Ping Loopback Delay and Del Command
Suspicious Deletion of Explorer RunMRU Values
Suspicious PowerShell Self-Delete Of Executable via Process Creation
Malicious Ransomware Self-Deletion via Ping Loopback and Del
Suspicious Self-Deletion Batch Artifact by JadeProx TriBack Loader (via file_event)
Windows: Zone.Identifier Alternate Data Stream Deleted by Uncommon Application
Suspicious Prefetch Deletion for Anti-Forensics
Pivot detection · T1070.004 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.