Detection: Windows Security And Backup Services Stop

Updated Date: 2026-02-25 ID: 9c24aef6-cad9-4931-acce-74318aa5663b Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the suspicious termination of known services commonly targeted by ransomware before file encryption. It leverages Windows System Event Logs (EventCode 7036) to identify when critical services such as Volume Shadow Copy, backup, and antivirus services are stopped. This activity is significant because ransomware often disables these services to avoid errors and ensure successful file encryption. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could lead to widespread data encryption, rendering files inaccessible and potentially causing significant operational disruption and data loss.

Search

 1`wineventlog_system`
 2`normalized_service_binary_field`
 3
 4| rename param1 as display_name
 5
 6| where param2="stopped" AND (match(display_name, "(?i)(Volume Shadow Copy
 7|VSS
 8|backup
 9|sophos
10|sql
11|memtas
12|mepocs
13|veeam
14|svc\$
15|DefWatch
16|ccEvtMgr
17|ccSetMgr
18|SavRoam
19|RTVscan
20|QBFCService
21|QBIDPService
22|Intuit\.QuickBooks\.FCS
23|QBCFMonitorService
24|YooBackup
25|YooIT
26|Veeam
27|PDVFSService
28|BackupExec
29|WdBoot
30|WdFilter
31|WdNisDrv
32|WdNisSvc
33|WinDefend
34|wscsvc
35|Sense
36|sppsvc
37|SecurityHealthService)") OR match(normalized_service_name, "(?i)(Volume Shadow Copy
38|VSS
39|backup
40|sophos
41|sql
42|memtas
43|mepocs
44|veeam
45|svc\$
46|DefWatch
47|ccEvtMgr
48|ccSetMgr
49|SavRoam
50|RTVscan
51|QBFCService
52|QBIDPService
53|Intuit\.QuickBooks\.FCS
54|QBCFMonitorService
55|YooBackup
56|YooIT
57|Veeam
58|PDVFSService
59|BackupExec
60|WdBoot
61|WdFilter
62|WdNisDrv
63|WdNisSvc
64|WinDefend
65|wscsvc
66|Sense
67|sppsvc
68|SecurityHealthService)"))
69
70
71| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by EventCode display_name dest normalized_service_name
72
73| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
74
75| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
76
77| `windows_security_and_backup_services_stop_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Windows Event Log System 7036	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:System'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
normalized_service_binary_field	`EventCode=7036
windows_security_and_backup_services_stop_filter	`search *`

windows_security_and_backup_services_stop_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1490	Inhibit System Recovery	Impact

Actions on Objectives

DE.CM

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the 7036 EventCode ScManager in System audit Logs from your endpoints.

Known False Positives

Admin activities or installing related updates may do a sudden stop to list of services we monitor.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

Known services $display_name$ terminated by a potential ransomware on $dest$

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	72	display_name

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:System`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:System`	`XmlWinEventLog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 5