Backup Deletion with Wbadmin

  1[metadata]
  2creation_date = "2020/02/18"
  3integration = ["endpoint", "windows", "system", "m365_defender", "sentinel_one_cloud_funnel", "crowdstrike"]
  4maturity = "production"
  5updated_date = "2025/05/09"
  6
  7[rule]
  8author = ["Elastic"]
  9description = """
 10Detects use of wbadmin.exe to delete backup catalogs, system state backups, or other backup data. Ransomware and other
 11malware may do this to prevent system recovery.
 12"""
 13from = "now-9m"
 14index = [
 15    "endgame-*",
 16    "logs-crowdstrike.fdr*",
 17    "logs-endpoint.events.process-*",
 18    "logs-m365_defender.event-*",
 19    "logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*",
 20    "logs-system.security*",
 21    "logs-windows.forwarded*",
 22    "logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*",
 23    "winlogbeat-*",
 24]
 25language = "eql"
 26license = "Elastic License v2"
 27name = "Backup Deletion with Wbadmin"
 28note = """## Triage and analysis
 29
 30### Investigating Backup Deletion with Wbadmin
 31
 32Windows Server Backup stores the details about your backups (what volumes are backed up and where the backups are located) in a file called a backup catalog, which ransomware victims can use to recover corrupted backup files. Deleting these files is a common step in threat actor playbooks.
 33
 34This rule identifies the deletion of the backup catalog using the `wbadmin.exe` utility.
 35
 36#### Possible investigation steps
 37
 38- Investigate the process execution chain (parent process tree) for unknown processes. Examine their executable files for prevalence, whether they are located in expected locations, and if they are signed with valid digital signatures.
 39- Identify the user account that performed the action and whether it should perform this kind of action.
 40- Contact the account owner and confirm whether they are aware of this activity.
 41- Investigate other alerts associated with the user/host during the past 48 hours.
 42- Assess whether this behavior is prevalent in the environment by looking for similar occurrences across hosts.
 43- Check if any files on the host machine have been encrypted.
 44
 45### False positive analysis
 46
 47- Administrators can use this command to delete corrupted catalogs, but overall the activity is unlikely to be legitimate.
 48
 49### Related rules
 50
 51- Third-party Backup Files Deleted via Unexpected Process - 11ea6bec-ebde-4d71-a8e9-784948f8e3e9
 52- Volume Shadow Copy Deleted or Resized via VssAdmin - b5ea4bfe-a1b2-421f-9d47-22a75a6f2921
 53- Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell - d99a037b-c8e2-47a5-97b9-170d076827c4
 54- Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC - dc9c1f74-dac3-48e3-b47f-eb79db358f57
 55
 56### Response and remediation
 57
 58- Initiate the incident response process based on the outcome of the triage.
 59- Consider isolating the involved host to prevent destructive behavior, which is commonly associated with this activity.
 60- Investigate credential exposure on systems compromised or used by the attacker to ensure all compromised accounts are identified. Reset passwords for these accounts and other potentially compromised credentials, such as email, business systems, and web services.
 61- If any other destructive action was identified on the host, it is recommended to prioritize the investigation and look for ransomware preparation and execution activities.
 62- If any backups were affected:
 63  - Perform data recovery locally or restore the backups from replicated copies (cloud, other servers, etc.).
 64- Determine the initial vector abused by the attacker and take action to prevent reinfection through the same vector.
 65- Using the incident response data, update logging and audit policies to improve the mean time to detect (MTTD) and the mean time to respond (MTTR).
 66"""
 67risk_score = 21
 68rule_id = "581add16-df76-42bb-af8e-c979bfb39a59"
 69severity = "low"
 70tags = [
 71    "Domain: Endpoint",
 72    "OS: Windows",
 73    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
 74    "Tactic: Impact",
 75    "Resources: Investigation Guide",
 76    "Data Source: Elastic Endgame",
 77    "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
 78    "Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs",
 79    "Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint",
 80    "Data Source: Sysmon",
 81    "Data Source: SentinelOne",
 82    "Data Source: Crowdstrike",
 83]
 84timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
 85type = "eql"
 86
 87query = '''
 88process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
 89  (process.name : "wbadmin.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name == "WBADMIN.EXE") and
 90  process.args : ("catalog", "backup", "systemstatebackup") and process.args : "delete"
 91'''
 92
 93
 94[[rule.threat]]
 95framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
 96[[rule.threat.technique]]
 97id = "T1485"
 98name = "Data Destruction"
 99reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1485/"
100
101[[rule.threat.technique]]
102id = "T1490"
103name = "Inhibit System Recovery"
104reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1490/"
105
106
107[rule.threat.tactic]
108id = "TA0040"
109name = "Impact"
110reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0040/"