huntrule

Suspicious Shadow Copy Deletion via Vssadmin by Kraken Ransomware

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-11
Updated
2026-09-11
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

  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 Volume Shadow Copies using vssadmin with the delete shadows and all flags. This behavior is associated with the Kraken ransomware group which inhibits system recovery prior to encryption. Removing shadow copies prevents victims from restoring files without paying the ransom.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1490 — drag to rearrange
Malicious Mass Hyper-V Virtual Machine Shutdown via PowerShell by Kraken Ransomware
Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin or WMIC
Malicious Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin
Suspicious Free Space Wipe via cipher.exe
Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion Via WMI
Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin or wmic
Malicious Inhibit System Recovery via Backup and Shadow Copy Deletion (via process_creation)
Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin
Malicious Shadow Copy and Backup Catalog Deletion (via process_creation)
Suspicious Shadow Copy Deletion via Vssadmin by Kraken Ransomware
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.