| ID | Name |
|---|---|
| T1561.001 | Disk Content Wipe |
| T1561.002 | Disk Structure Wipe |
Adversaries may erase the contents of storage devices on specific systems or in large numbers in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources.
Adversaries may partially or completely overwrite the contents of a storage device rendering the data irrecoverable through the storage interface.[1][2][3] Instead of wiping specific disk structures or files, adversaries with destructive intent may wipe arbitrary portions of disk content. To wipe disk content, adversaries may acquire direct access to the hard drive in order to overwrite arbitrarily sized portions of disk with random data.[2] Adversaries have also been observed leveraging third-party drivers like RawDisk to directly access disk content.[1][2] This behavior is distinct from Data Destruction because sections of the disk are erased instead of individual files.
To maximize impact on the target organization in operations where network-wide availability interruption is the goal, malware used for wiping disk content may have worm-like features to propagate across a network by leveraging additional techniques like Valid Accounts, OS Credential Dumping, and SMB/Windows Admin Shares.[2]
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S1167 | AcidPour |
AcidPour includes functionality to overwrite victim devices with the content of a buffer to wipe disk content.[4] |
| S1125 | AcidRain |
AcidRain iterates over device file identifiers on the target, opens the device file, and either overwrites the file or calls various IOCTLS commands to erase it.[5] |
| S1133 | Apostle |
Apostle searches for files on available drives based on a list of extensions hard-coded into the sample for follow-on wipe activity.[6] |
| C0051 | APT28 Nearest Neighbor Campaign |
During APT28 Nearest Neighbor Campaign, APT28 used the native Microsoft utility cipher.exe to securely wipe files and folders – overwriting the deleted data using |
| S1068 | BlackCat |
BlackCat has the ability to wipe VM snapshots on compromised networks.[8][9] |
| S1205 | cipher.exe |
cipher.exe can be used to overwrite deleted data in specified folders.[7] |
| S1111 | DarkGate |
DarkGate has deleted all files in the Mozilla directory using the following command: |
| S1134 | DEADWOOD |
DEADWOOD deletes files following overwriting them with random data.[6] |
| G0047 | Gamaredon Group |
Gamaredon Group has used tools to delete files and folders from victims' desktops and profiles.[11] |
| S0697 | HermeticWiper |
HermeticWiper has the ability to corrupt disk partitions and obtain raw disk access to destroy data.[12][13] |
| G0032 | Lazarus Group |
Lazarus Group has used malware like WhiskeyAlfa to overwrite the first 64MB of every drive with a mix of static and random buffers. A similar process is then used to wipe content in logical drives and, finally, attempt to wipe every byte of every sector on every drive. WhiskeyBravo can be used to overwrite the first 4.9MB of physical drives. WhiskeyDelta can overwrite the first 132MB or 1.5MB of each drive with random data from heap memory.[2] |
| S0576 | MegaCortex |
MegaCortex can wipe deleted data from all drives using |
| S0364 | RawDisk |
RawDisk has been used to directly access the hard disk to help overwrite arbitrarily sized portions of disk content.[2] |
| S0380 | StoneDrill |
StoneDrill can wipe the accessible physical or logical drives of the infected machine.[15] |
| G1055 | VOID MANTICORE |
VOID MANTICORE has utilized a disk wiping utility to facilitate destructive actions on victim servers.[16] VOID MANTICORE has also utilized legitimate remote disk wiping commands.[17] |
| S1010 | VPNFilter |
VPNFilter has the capability to wipe a portion of an infected device's firmware.[18] |
| S0689 | WhisperGate |
WhisperGate can overwrite sectors of a victim host's hard drive at periodic offsets.[19][20][21] |
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1053 | Data Backup |
Consider implementing IT disaster recovery plans that contain procedures for taking regular data backups that can be used to restore organizational data.[22] Ensure backups are stored off system and is protected from common methods adversaries may use to gain access and destroy the backups to prevent recovery. |
| ID | Name | Analytic ID | Analytic Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| DET0316 | Detection Strategy for Disk Content Wipe via Direct Access and Overwrite | AN0882 |
Processes attempting raw disk access via \.\PhysicalDrive paths, abnormal file I/O to MBR/boot sectors, or loading of third-party drivers (e.g., RawDisk) that enable disk overwrite. Correlate process creation, privilege usage, and disk modification events within a short time window. |
| AN0883 |
Execution of destructive utilities (dd, shred, wipe) targeting block devices, or processes invoking syscalls to directly overwrite /dev/sd or /dev/nvme partitions. Correlate abnormal file write attempts with shell process execution and block device access. |
||
| AN0884 |
Abnormal invocation of diskutil or asr with destructive flags (eraseDisk, zeroDisk), or low-level IOKit calls that overwrite raw disk content. Detect correlation between elevated process execution and disk erase operations. |
||
| AN0885 |
Execution of CLI commands erasing file systems or storage (erase flash:, format disk, erase nvram:). Detect authentication events followed by destructive commands within the same privileged session. |