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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.2] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Delete Volume USN Journal with Fsutil

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Delete Volume USN Journal with Fsutil

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Identifies use of the fsutil.exe to delete the volume USNJRNL. This technique is used by attackers to eliminate evidence of files created during post-exploitation activities.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • logs-windows.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Defense Evasion

Version: 10 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.2.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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## Config

If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.

Rule query

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process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
(process.name : "fsutil.exe" or process.pe.original_file_name ==
"fsutil.exe") and process.args : "deletejournal" and process.args :
"usn"

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 10 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 9 (7.13.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.name:fsutil.exe and process.args:(deletejournal and usn)
Version 8 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 7 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 6 (7.11.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (7.10.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.9.1 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.9.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
process.name:fsutil.exe and process.args:(deletejournal and usn)
Version 2 (7.7.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
process.name:"fsutil.exe" and process.args:("usn" and "deletejournal")
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