This detection targets adversary behavior involving the execution of destructive cleaning utilities designed to erase forensic artifacts or system logs as part of a post-exploitation cover-up strategy. The SOC team should proactively hunt for this activity in Azure Sentinel because identifying these low-severity tool executions early can reveal sophisticated attackers attempting to obscure their presence before triggering higher-level alerts.
rule DestructiveTargetCleaningTool2
{
strings:
$secureWipe = { 83 EC 34 53 55 8B 6C 24 40 56 57 83 CE FF 55 C7 44 24 2C D3 00 00 00 C7 44 24 30 2C 00 00 00 89 74 24 34 89 74 24 38 C7 44 24 3C 95 00 00 00 C7 44 24 40 6A 00 00 00 89 74 24 44 C7 44 24 14 07 00 00 00 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 3B C6 89 44 24 1C 0F 84 (D8 | d9) 01 00 00 33 FF 68 00 00 01 00 57 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B D8 3B DF 89 5C 24 14 0F 84 (BC | BD) 01 00 00 8B 44 24 1C A8 01 74 0A 24 FE 50 55 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B 44 24 4C 2B C7 74 20 48 74 0F 83 E8 02 75 1C C7 44 24 10 03 00 00 00 EB 12 C7 44 24 10 01 00 00 00 89 74 24 28 EB 04 89 7C 24 10 8B 44 24 10 89 7C 24 1C 3B C7 0F 8E ( 5C | 5d ) 01 00 00 8D 44 24 28 89 44 24 4C EB 03 83 CE FF 8B 4C 24 4C 8B 01 3B C6 74 17 8A D0 B9 00 40 00 00 8A F2 8B FB 8B C2 C1 E0 10 66 8B C2 F3 AB EB ( 13 | 14) 33 F6 (E8 | ff 15) ?? ?? ?? ?? 88 04 1E 46 81 FE 00 00 01 00 7C ( EF | ee) 6A 00 6A 00 6A 03 6A 00 6A 03 68 00 00 00 C0 55 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B F0 83 FE FF 0F 84 FA 00 00 00 8D 44 24 20 50 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B 2D ?? ?? ?? ?? 6A 02 6A 00 6A FF 56 FF D5 8D 4C 24 18 6A 00 51 6A 01 53 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 6A 00 6A 00 6A 00 56 FF D5 8B 44 24 24 8B 54 24 20 33 FF 33 DB 85 C0 7C 5A 7F 0A 85 D2 76 54 EB 04 8B 54 24 20 8B CA BD 00 00 01 00 2B CF 1B C3 85 C0 7F 0A 7C 04 3B CD 73 04 2B D7 8B EA 8B 44 24 14 8D 54 24 18 6A 00 52 55 50 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B 6C 24 18 8B 44 24 24 03 FD 83 D3 00 3B D8 7C BE 7F 08 8B 54 24 20 3B FA 72 B8 8B 2D ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B 5C 24 10 8B 7C 24 1C 8D 4B FF 3B F9 75 17 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 6A 00 6A 00 6A 00 56 FF D5 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 56 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 8B 4C 24 4C 8B 6C 24 48 47 83 C1 04 3B FB 8B 5C 24 14 89 7C 24 1C 89 4C 24 4C 0F 8C ( AE | AD) FE FF FF 6A 00 55 E8 ?? ?? ?? ?? 83 C4 08 53 FF 15 ?? ?? ?? ?? 5F 5E 5D 5B 83 C4 34 C3 }
condition:
$secureWipe
}This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:
This rule contains 1 string patterns in its detection logic.
Here are 5 specific false positive scenarios for the DestructiveTargetCleaningTool2 detection rule, tailored for an enterprise environment:
Scheduled Enterprise Disk Cleanup via CCleaner Professional
CCleaner.exe with the /CLEANER and /TEMP flags to purge temporary files, browser caches, and system logs across all workstations. This legitimate mass deletion of non-critical data mimics the behavior of a destructive cleaning tool.C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe when executed by the built-in Windows Task Scheduler service (S-1-5-8) or specific admin accounts (e.g., DOMAIN\IT_Ops_Svc).Automated Log Rotation and Archiving with Splunk Universal Forwarder
splunk-forwarder binary to rotate and compress application logs daily. This process actively deletes old .log files from source directories after archiving them, triggering the “destructive cleaning” signature due to high-volume file deletion operations on standard log paths (e.g., C:\ProgramData\Logs).splunk-forwarder.exe and the target files match the regex pattern .*\.log$ or reside within directories named Logs, Archive, or Temp.Software Deployment Agent Cleanup (Microsoft SCCM / Intune)
ccmexec.exe) performs post-installation cleanup. It removes temporary installation folders