WebServer Access Logs Deleted

Identifies the deletion of WebServer access logs. This may indicate an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Linux
Windows
macOS
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 4

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

edit

## 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

edit

file where event.type == "deletion" and
  file.path : ("C:\\inetpub\\logs\\LogFiles\\*.log",
               "/var/log/apache*/access.log",
               "/etc/httpd/logs/access_log",
               "/var/log/httpd/access_log",
               "/var/www/*/logs/access.log")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: Indicator Removal on Host
- ID: T1070
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1070/

« Agent Spoofing - Multiple Hosts Using Same Agent Timestomping using Touch Command »