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Description

The wevtutil.exe application is the windows event log utility. This searches for wevtutil.exe with parameters for clearing the application, security, setup, trace or system event logs.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2021-10-11
  • Author: David Dorsey, Michael Haag, Splunk
  • ID: 2827c0fd-e1be-4868-ae25-59d28e0f9d4f

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1070.001 Clear Windows Event Logs Defense Evasion
T1070 Indicator Removal Defense Evasion
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` values(Processes.process) as process min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name=wevtutil.exe Processes.process IN ("* cl *", "*clear-log*") (Processes.process="*System*" OR Processes.process="*Security*" OR Processes.process="*Setup*" OR Processes.process="*Application*" OR Processes.process="*trace*") by Processes.process_name Processes.parent_process_name Processes.dest Processes.user
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
|`security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `suspicious_wevtutil_usage_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: suspicious_wevtutil_usage_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • Processes.process
  • Processes.process_name
  • Processes.parent_process_name
  • Processes.dest
  • Processes.user

How To Implement

You must be ingesting data that records process activity from your hosts to populate the Endpoint data model in the Processes node. You must also be ingesting logs with both the process name and command line from your endpoints. The command-line arguments are mapped to the "process" field in the Endpoint data model.

Known False Positives

The wevtutil.exe application is a legitimate Windows event log utility. Administrators may use it to manage Windows event logs.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
28.0 40 70 Wevtutil.exe being used to clear Event Logs on $dest$ by $user$

:information_source: The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

Test Dataset

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 | version: 4