Clearing Windows Event Logs

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

Identifies attempts to clear or disable Windows event log stores using the Windows wevetutil command. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[Date Math format], see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 12

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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

		process where event.type in ("process_started", "start") and
  (process.name : "wevtutil.exe" or process.pe.original_file_name == "wevtutil.exe") and
    process.args : ("/e:false", "cl", "clear-log") or
  process.name : ("powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe", "powershell_ise.exe") and process.args : "Clear-EventLog"

	

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

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/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Clear Windows Event Logs
- ID: T1070.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1070/001/