File Deletion via Shred

Last updated a month ago on 2025-12-01

Created 6 years ago on 2020-04-27

About

Malware or other files dropped or created on a system by an adversary may leave traces behind as to what was done within a network and how. Adversaries may remove these files over the course of an intrusion to keep their footprint low or remove them at the end as part of the post-intrusion cleanup process.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Auditd ManagerData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: CrowdstrikeData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql

Severity

low

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Indicator Removal (T1070)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type

Event Correlation Rule

Integration Pack

Prebuilt Security Detection Rules

Index Patterns

auditbeat-*endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-auditd_manager.auditd-*

Related Integrations

auditd_manager(external, opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(external, opens in a new tab or window)

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action in ("exec", "exec_event", "start", "ProcessRollup2", "executed", "process_started") and
process.name == "shred" and (
// Any short-flag cluster containing at least one of u/z, and containing no extra "-" after the first one
process.args regex~ "-[^-]*[uz][^-]*" or
process.args in ("--remove", "--zero")
) and
not process.parent.name == "logrotate"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect File Deletion via Shred in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).