Applied Cybernetics Group
T1070 Indicator Removal
- Technique
T1070- Tactics
- Defense Evasion
- Research, 90 days
- 3
- KEV CVEs mapped
- 3
- SigmaHQ rules
- 20
- Elastic, Splunk
- 50
- thrunt rules
- 0
- Upstream
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1070
MITRE description
Adversaries may selectively delete or modify artifacts generated to reduce indications of their presence and blend in with legitimate activity. Rather than broadly removing evidence, adversaries may target specific artifacts that appear anomalous or are likely to draw scrutiny, while leaving sufficient data intact to maintain the appearance of normal system behavior. Artifacts such as command histories, log entries, or file metadata may be altered in ways that align with expected user or system activity. Location, format, and type of artifact (such as command or login history) are often platform-specific, allowing adversaries to tailor modifications that minimize suspicion. These actions may not prevent detection entirely but can delay recognition of malicious activity or reduce the fidelity of alerts by making events appear benign or consistent with routine operations. Additionally, selectively removed or modified artifacts may still be recoverable through deeper forensic analysis, though their absence or alteration can complicate timeline reconstruction and attribution.
KEV CVEs mapped to this technique
MITRE CTID maps these KEV CVEs to this technique by hand. They are the actively exploited vulnerabilities behind this technique's KEV signal.
Research citing this technique
Reports and advisories from the last 90 days that cite this technique.
-
2026-10-29Cisco Talos: IR trends Q3 2026: Actors impersonate IT help desks in vishing attacks as ransomware activity increases -
2026-10-14Group-IB: KGB RAT: A Fully Undetectable Windows Trojan Built to Spy, Steal, and Terrorize -
2026-09-24FortiGuard Labs: Uncovering a SectopRAT Variant Embedded in Legitimate Software
Detection coverage
SigmaHQ community rules
- Kubernetes Events Deleted (core)
- SES Identity Has Been Deleted (core)
- Linux Package Uninstall (core)
- Remove Exported Mailbox from Exchange Webserver (core)
- EventLog EVTX File Deleted (core)
- Exchange PowerShell Cmdlet History Deleted (core)
- IIS WebServer Access Logs Deleted (core)
- PowerShell Console History Logs Deleted (core)
- Tomcat WebServer Logs Deleted (core)
- DLL Load By System Process From Suspicious Locations (core)
- Clearing Windows Console History (core)
- Disable of ETW Trace - Powershell (core)
- Potential Ransomware or Unauthorized MBR Tampering Via Bcdedit.EXE (core)
- Sysmon Driver Unloaded Via Fltmc.EXE (core)
- Filter Driver Unloaded Via Fltmc.EXE (core)
- Fsutil Suspicious Invocation (core)
- IIS WebServer Log Deletion via CommandLine Utilities (core)
- ETW Trace Evasion Activity (core)
- Shadow Copies Deletion Using Operating Systems Utilities (core)
- Terminal Server Client Connection History Cleared - Registry (core)
Elastic and Splunk rules
- AWS Audit or Security Service Tampering via CLI (elastic)
- WebServer Access Logs Deleted (elastic)
- Tampering of Shell Command-Line History (elastic)
- Timestomping using Touch Command (elastic)
- Anthropic Excessive Chat Deletion (elastic)
- AWS EKS Events Deleted (elastic)
- AWS S3 Bucket Configuration Deletion (elastic)
- AWS S3 Bucket Expiration Lifecycle Configuration Added (elastic)
- AWS SES Email Identity Verified Then Deleted (elastic)
- Azure AKS Kubernetes Events Deleted (elastic)
- Shell Command-Line History Deletion Detected via Defend for Containers (elastic)
- Ingress Tool Transfer Followed by Execution and Deletion Detected via Defend for Containers (elastic)
- Kubernetes Events Deleted (elastic)
- M365 Exchange MFA Notification Email Deleted or Moved (elastic)
- OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise Excessive Conversation Deletion (elastic)
- OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise Memory Deleted (elastic)
- OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise Workspace Log File Deleted (elastic)
- ESXi Host Logs Deleted with rm (elastic)
- SSH Authorized Keys File Deletion (elastic)
- Attempt to Clear Kernel Ring Buffer (elastic)
- ESXI Timestomping using Touch Command (elastic)
- Process Execution Followed by Self-Deletion (elastic)
- File Deletion via Shred (elastic)
- Attempt to Clear Logs via Journalctl (elastic)
- System Log File Deletion (elastic)
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