Disk Wipe

Adversaries may wipe or corrupt raw disk data on specific systems or in large numbers in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources. With direct write access to a disk, adversaries may attempt to overwrite portions of disk data. Adversaries may opt to wipe arbitrary portions of disk data and/or wipe disk structures like the master boot record (MBR). A complete wipe of all disk sectors may be attempted.

To maximize impact on the target organization in operations where network-wide availability interruption is the goal, malware used for wiping disks 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.[1]

On network devices, adversaries may wipe configuration files and other data from the device using Network Device CLI commands such as erase.[2]

ID: T1561
Sub-techniques:  T1561.001, T1561.002
Tactic: Impact
Platforms: Linux, Network, Windows, macOS
Impact Type: Availability
Contributors: Austin Clark, @c2defense
Version: 1.1
Created: 20 February 2020
Last Modified: 20 April 2023

Mitigations

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.[3] 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.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component Detects
DS0017 Command Command Execution

Monitor for direct access read/write attempts using the \\.\ notation.[4] Monitor for unusual kernel driver installation activity.

DS0016 Drive Drive Access

Monitor for newly constructed drive letters or mount points to a data storage device for attempts to write to sensitive locations like the partition boot sector, master boot record, disk partition table, or BIOS parameter block/superblock.

Drive Modification

Monitor for changes made to drive letters or mount points of data storage devices for attempts to read to sensitive locations like the partition boot sector, master boot record, disk partition table, or BIOS parameter block/superblock.

DS0027 Driver Driver Load

Monitor for unusual kernel driver installation activity that may wipe or corrupt raw disk data on specific systems or in large numbers in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources.

DS0009 Process Process Creation

Monitor newly executed processes that may wipe or corrupt raw disk data on specific systems or in large numbers in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources.

References