Detect Disk Wipe in Splunk
Adversaries may wipe or corrupt raw disk data on specific systems or across a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources. With direct write access to a disk, adversaries may attempt to overwrite arbitrary portions of disk data or target critical disk structures such as the Master Boot Record (MBR) or Volume Boot Record (VBR). A complete wipe of all disk sectors may be attempted using built-in OS utilities, third-party tools, or custom malware. Real-world destructive campaigns using this technique include Shamoon (Saudi Aramco, 2012), WhisperGate (Ukraine, 2022), HermeticWiper (Ukraine, 2022), and Destover (Sony, 2014). Wiper malware frequently chains multiple TA0040 techniques: disabling VSS/recovery first, then overwriting disk content, then corrupting disk structure, to maximize recovery difficulty.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Impact
- Technique
- T1561 Disk Wipe
- Canonical reference
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1561/
SPL Detection Query
index=wineventlog (sourcetype="XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational" EventCode=1)
(Image="*\\dd.exe" OR Image="*\\diskpart.exe" OR Image="*\\format.exe" OR Image="*\\cipher.exe"
OR Image="*\\sdelete.exe" OR Image="*\\wipe.exe" OR Image="*\\eraser.exe" OR Image="*\\killdisk.exe"
OR Image="*\\bcdedit.exe" OR Image="*\\vssadmin.exe" OR Image="*\\wevtutil.exe"
OR CommandLine="*\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive*" OR CommandLine="*\\\\.\\HarddiskVolume*"
OR CommandLine="*if=/dev/zero*" OR CommandLine="*if=/dev/random*")
| eval CommandLineLower=lower(CommandLine)
| eval RawDiskAccess=if(match(CommandLineLower, "(\\\\.\\\\physicaldrive|\\\\.\\\\harddiskvolume|if=/dev/zero|if=/dev/random|if=/dev/urandom|of=/dev/sd|of=/dev/hd)"), 1, 0)
| eval DiskPartWipe=if(match(Image, "diskpart\.exe$") AND match(CommandLineLower, "clean"), 1, 0)
| eval FormatSecureWipe=if(match(Image, "format\.exe$") AND match(CommandLineLower, "/p:[1-9]"), 1, 0)
| eval CipherWipe=if(match(Image, "cipher\.exe$") AND match(CommandLineLower, "/w"), 1, 0)
| eval SDeleteWipe=if(match(Image, "sdelete\.exe$") AND match(CommandLineLower, "(-z|-zd|-c|/z|/c)"), 1, 0)
| eval VSSDelete=if(match(CommandLineLower, "(delete shadows|shadowcopy delete|delete shadows /all)"), 1, 0)
| eval BootRecoveryDisable=if(match(Image, "bcdedit\.exe$") AND match(CommandLineLower, "recoveryenabled"), 1, 0)
| eval AuditLogClear=if(match(Image, "wevtutil\.exe$") AND match(CommandLineLower, "(\\scl\\s|\\sclear-log|\\s/cl)"), 1, 0)
| eval WipeScore=RawDiskAccess + DiskPartWipe + FormatSecureWipe + CipherWipe + SDeleteWipe + VSSDelete + BootRecoveryDisable + AuditLogClear
| where WipeScore > 0
| table _time, host, User, Image, CommandLine, ParentImage, ParentCommandLine,
RawDiskAccess, DiskPartWipe, FormatSecureWipe, CipherWipe, SDeleteWipe,
VSSDelete, BootRecoveryDisable, AuditLogClear, WipeScore
| sort - WipeScore - _timeDetects disk wiping activity using Sysmon Event ID 1 (Process Creation) from Windows endpoints. Evaluates process image and command line against known wiping tools with destructive flags, raw disk device access patterns, VSS deletion, recovery disabling, and audit log clearing. Assigns a cumulative WipeScore to prioritize events with multiple simultaneous indicators — a hallmark of automated wiper malware that chains preparation (disable recovery, delete VSS) with execution (overwrite disk).
Data Sources
Required Sourcetypes
False Positives & Tuning
- IT operations using diskpart clean or format /p: for decommissioning hardware before asset disposal or reimaging
- Security teams running SDelete or cipher /w as part of data sanitization workflows on endpoints being retired
- Backup and disaster recovery software (Acronis, Veeam) accessing raw PhysicalDrive handles during bare-metal restore
- Forensic investigators using dd or FTK Imager for disk imaging that access \\PhysicalDrive paths
- Scheduled vssadmin delete shadows jobs on file/database servers managing VSS snapshot storage consumption
Other platforms for T1561
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 5 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1VSS Shadow Copy Deletion via vssadmin (Pre-Wipe Preparation)
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: Process Create with Image=vssadmin.exe, CommandLine='vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet'. Security Event ID 4688 (if command line auditing enabled). No Sysmon Event ID 3 expected (local operation). Parent process will be cmd.exe or powershell.exe in test context.
- Test 2Boot Recovery Disable via bcdedit (Pre-Wipe Preparation)
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: two Process Create events for bcdedit.exe — first with CommandLine containing 'recoveryenabled No', second with 'bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures'. Security Event ID 4688 for both (if command line auditing enabled). No network events expected.
- Test 3Secure Free Space Overwrite via cipher /w
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: Process Create with Image=cipher.exe, CommandLine='cipher /w:C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Temp' (path will be expanded). Sysmon Event ID 11: multiple temporary file creation events (EFSTMPWP.tmp files) in the target directory as cipher creates temporary overwrite files. Process will run for several seconds to minutes depending on free space.
- Test 4Diskpart Disk Clean via Script File (Simulated — Uses Virtual Disk)
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: two Process Create events for diskpart.exe — first with /s dp_create.txt (VHD creation), second with /s dp_wipe.txt (clean all). Sysmon Event ID 11: file creation events for the .vhd and .txt script files in %TEMP%. The actual 'clean all' command is in the script file, not the command line, so analysts should correlate with file creation of the script files.
- Test 5Linux Raw Disk Overwrite Simulation via dd (File Target — Safe)
Expected signal: Linux auditd EXECVE record with comm=dd, a0=if=/dev/zero, a1=of=/tmp/argus_wipe_test.bin. Syslog process creation record. If Falco is deployed: process_started rule matching dd with if=/dev/zero pattern. The command generates 40MB written to disk — watch for I/O spike in monitoring. Note: real wiper uses of=/dev/sda or similar block device path.
References (14)
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1561/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1561/001/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1561/002/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200515/https:/operationblockbuster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Operation-Blockbuster-Destructive-Malware-Report.pdf
- https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/fundamentals/command/cf_command_ref/D_through_E.html#wp3557227463
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysmon
- https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/ukraine-and-disk-wiping-attacks
- https://www.welivesecurity.com/2022/01/15/hermeticwiper-new-data-wiping-malware-hits-ukraine/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2022/01/15/destructive-malware-targeting-ukrainian-organizations/
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1561/T1561.md
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/tree/master/rules/windows/process_creation
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/diskpart
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cipher
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/advanced-hunting-deviceprocessevents-table
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