ETW Trace Evasion Activity

calendar Apr 28, 2026 · attack.stealth attack.defense-impairment attack.t1070 attack.t1685 car.2016-04-002  ·
Share on: linkedin copy

Detects command line activity that tries to clear or disable any ETW trace log which could be a sign of logging evasion.

Sigma rule (View on GitHub)

 1title: ETW Trace Evasion Activity
 2id: a238b5d0-ce2d-4414-a676-7a531b3d13d6
 3status: test
 4description: |
 5        Detects command line activity that tries to clear or disable any ETW trace log which could be a sign of logging evasion.
 6references:
 7    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/wevtutil
 8    - https://abuse.io/lockergoga.txt
 9    - https://medium.com/palantir/tampering-with-windows-event-tracing-background-offense-and-defense-4be7ac62ac63
10author: '@neu5ron, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community'
11date: 2019-03-22
12modified: 2022-06-28
13tags:
14    - attack.stealth
15    - attack.defense-impairment
16    - attack.t1070
17    - attack.t1685
18    - car.2016-04-002
19logsource:
20    category: process_creation
21    product: windows
22detection:
23    selection_clear_1:
24        CommandLine|contains|all:
25            - 'cl'
26            - '/Trace'
27    selection_clear_2:
28        CommandLine|contains|all:
29            - 'clear-log'
30            - '/Trace'
31    selection_disable_1:
32        CommandLine|contains|all:
33            - 'sl'
34            - '/e:false'
35    selection_disable_2:
36        CommandLine|contains|all:
37            - 'set-log'
38            - '/e:false'
39    selection_disable_3:   # ETW provider removal from a trace session
40        CommandLine|contains|all:
41            - 'logman'
42            - 'update'
43            - 'trace'
44            - '--p'
45            - '-ets'
46    selection_pwsh_remove:   # Autologger provider removal
47        CommandLine|contains: 'Remove-EtwTraceProvider'
48    selection_pwsh_set:   # Provider “Enable” property modification
49        CommandLine|contains|all:
50            - 'Set-EtwTraceProvider'
51            - '0x11'
52    condition: 1 of selection_*
53falsepositives:
54    - Unknown
55level: high

References

Related rules

to-top