Stop or disable command targeting a data-store service

Siemphony@siemphonylowT1489unverified

AN0061's chain is elevated context, then sc.exe/Stop-Service/ChangeServiceConfigW, then a terminated service, then possible follow-on file manipulation — Sigma has no construct for that window, so this rule keeps only the second link: the process invoking a controlled stop or a persistent disable against a named data-store service. That link is also what separates this technique from the published T1687 rule in this corpus, which keys on System 7031/7034 — the SCM recording a service that died *without* a control call — and says explicitly that a rule built on the control interface selects for the complement of exploitation. This is that complement: `sc.exe stop`, `net stop` and `Stop-Service` all use the sanctioned path and never produce a 7031. The service-name list is scoped to Exchange, SQL and IIS deliberately, not to AV or EDR names, even though AN0061's own example text pairs "Exchange, SQL" with "AV, endpoint monitoring" — narrowing away from that half avoids reproducing the security-tooling rule that belongs to T1562.001. For the same reason the list carries no shadow-copy term: stopping VSS is the precursor to inhibiting recovery and belongs to T1490, not to the data-store impact this rule is filed under. MITRE's `ServiceName` knob is populated here with that narrower list; a raw `ChangeServiceConfigW` call made directly from a process's own code, without going through any of these command-line tools, leaves nothing on this selector at all. UNVERIFIED AS AUTHORED — derived from MITRE ATT&CK DET0021, not hand-written and not tested by its author. Any lab result is on this rule's own page.Full description

The 4 SIEM queries below are previews produced by Siemphony’s own translator, not pySigma, and none has been executed against a real backend — review before you deploy.

detection.yml

Sentinel · KQL

Run this as a search.

DeviceProcessEvents| where (((FolderPath endswith "\\sc.exe" or FolderPath endswith "\\net.exe" or FolderPath endswith "\\net1.exe" or FolderPath endswith "\\powershell.exe" or FolderPath endswith "\\pwsh.exe") and (ProcessCommandLine contains " stop " or ProcessCommandLine contains "Stop-Service" or ProcessCommandLine contains "start= disabled" or ProcessCommandLine contains "start=disabled")) and (ProcessCommandLine contains "MSExchangeIS" or ProcessCommandLine contains "MSExchangeTransport" or ProcessCommandLine contains "MSSQLSERVER" or ProcessCommandLine contains "SQLSERVERAGENT" or ProcessCommandLine contains "W3SVC"))

Splunk · SPL

Run this as a search.

index=* (((Image="*\\sc.exe" OR Image="*\\net.exe" OR Image="*\\net1.exe" OR Image="*\\powershell.exe" OR Image="*\\pwsh.exe") AND (CommandLine="* stop *" OR CommandLine="*Stop-Service*" OR CommandLine="*start= disabled*" OR CommandLine="*start=disabled*")) AND (CommandLine="*MSExchangeIS*" OR CommandLine="*MSExchangeTransport*" OR CommandLine="*MSSQLSERVER*" OR CommandLine="*SQLSERVERAGENT*" OR CommandLine="*W3SVC*"))

Elastic · ES|QL

Run this as a search.

FROM logs-*| WHERE (((TO_LOWER(process.executable) LIKE "*\\\\sc.exe" OR TO_LOWER(process.executable) LIKE "*\\\\net.exe" OR TO_LOWER(process.executable) LIKE "*\\\\net1.exe" OR TO_LOWER(process.executable) LIKE "*\\\\powershell.exe" OR TO_LOWER(process.executable) LIKE "*\\\\pwsh.exe") AND (TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "* stop *" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*stop-service*" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*start= disabled*" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*start=disabled*")) AND (TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*msexchangeis*" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*msexchangetransport*" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*mssqlserver*" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*sqlserveragent*" OR TO_LOWER(process.command_line) LIKE "*w3svc*"))

Wazuh · XML rule

Deploy to your manager — this is a rule, not a search.

<group name="sigma,windows,process_creation,">  <!-- Rule ids must be unique on your manager; 100000+ is the user range. -->  <rule id="100000" level="5">    <!-- Set <if_sid> to the decoder/base rule for windows so this only evaluates relevant events. -->    <field name="Image" type="pcre2">(?i)(\\sc\.exe$|\\net\.exe$|\\net1\.exe$|\\powershell\.exe$|\\pwsh\.exe$)</field>    <field name="CommandLine" type="pcre2">(?i)( stop |Stop-Service|start= disabled|start=disabled)</field>    <field name="CommandLine" type="pcre2">(?i)(MSExchangeIS|MSExchangeTransport|MSSQLSERVER|SQLSERVERAGENT|W3SVC)</field>    <description>Stop or disable command targeting a data-store service</description>    <mitre>      <id>T1489</id>    </mitre>  </rule></group>

At a glance

Logsource: process_creation / windows
Level: low
Category: impact_destruction
Sigma status: experimental
Backends: 4 of 4 rendered
Updated: 30 Aug 2026
Rule ID: 81de870c-eec8-4c59-a2d3-7adb3a286c54

ATT&CKT1489

T1489Service Stop

ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. These mappings are the rule author’s, and are neither reviewed nor endorsed by MITRE.

Lessonimpact destruction

impact destruction

01 · What this rule detects

The work an operator does to make recovery impossible before, or while, destroying data — deleting volume shadow copies, wiping backup catalogs, disabling Windows recovery and boot repair, and deleting or overwriting files recursively. Most of it happens in a short burst immediately before encryption, which is why the precursors are the part worth detecting: by the time file modification volume is the signal, the decision has already been made for you. This overlaps deliberately with log clearing — the same burst usually destroys evidence and recovery together — but keep the two rules apart, because they point at different questions.

02 · Telemetry you need

Process creation with full command lines — Sysmon EventID 1, or Security 4688 with Audit Process Creation and the command-line inclusion policy; without the second policy you see that vssadmin ran and nothing about what it did
The utilities themselves: vssadmin, wmic shadowcopy, wbadmin, bcdedit, cipher, and the PowerShell and WMI equivalents that never touch a command-line binary
Sysmon EventID 23 and 26 (FileDelete and FileDeleteDetected) — not in the default configuration, and the archiving variant needs disk space budgeted for it
Service and provider activity for the Volume Shadow Copy service, and the backup product's own logs, which record deletion the operating system does not
Security 4663 for delete access on protected shares — Audit Object Access plus a SACL, off by default and inert without the SACL

03 · How the logic works

These command lines are short, fixed and close to unique, which makes this one of the few categories where string matching against the command line is the right primary approach rather than a fallback. Structure each as image AND destructive verb: matching vssadmin alone catches every backup product listing shadows, whereas vssadmin with delete does not. Allow for argument reordering, abbreviation and the several spellings of the same operation, and remember that the same effect is reachable through WMI and the COM interfaces without running the utility at all — so a rule set that names only the executables has a hole in it that any competent tooling walks through. The mass-encryption half is a rate problem: file modifications per process per minute, which Sigma cannot express and which belongs in the correlation layer.

04 · Common false positives

Backup software managing its own shadow storage and pruning old copies — Veeam, Acronis, Windows Server Backup and the built-in scheduled tasks
Disk cleanup and storage reclamation removing shadow copies when a volume fills
Imaging, provisioning and task sequences that use bcdedit and reset recovery configuration by design
Non-persistent VDI and lab rebuild workflows that discard machine state on every cycle
Developers and build systems recursively deleting output directories

05 · Detection maturity

Tier 1 — starting point: Matches vssadmin and wbadmin deletion command lines.
Tier 2 — tuned: Covers the WMI and PowerShell routes and boot configuration tampering, with backup hosts and maintenance windows excluded.
Tier 3 — correlated: Correlates recovery destruction with log clearing, service stops and file modification rate from the same host and process tree.

Tuning & false positivesexperimental · 4 declared

experimental (current stage)
test
stable

Written and reasoned about, but not yet run against real telemetry. Expect to tune it before trusting it.

Tuning tips

This should be a near-silent category. If it is noisy, find out what is deleting recovery points routinely and fix that rather than filtering it
Never exclude by account — the accounts used here are administrative by definition, which is the point
Scope exclusions to the specific backup hosts and their maintenance windows, and revisit them when the backup product changes
Alert on failed attempts as well as successful ones; a denied shadow deletion is the same intent and better news
Escalate hard on the combination — shadow deletion, log clearing and service stops from one host inside a few minutes is a different alert from any of them alone

Declared by the author

Planned maintenance. Helpdesk and messaging/database administrators routinely stop Exchange, SQL or IIS services with exactly these tools before a patch, a config change or a certificate renewal, and on a server fleet with a regular patch cadence this is the highest-volume match by a wide margin.
Backup and reporting jobs that stop SQLSERVERAGENT for the duration of a maintenance window before restarting it, which are scheduled, recurring, and use exactly the command shape this rule matches.
Update and installer packages for Exchange, SQL Server or IIS that stop their own services as a documented step before replacing binaries, producing a burst of matches during a rollout.
Cluster failover tooling that stops a service on one node as part of a planned role transfer, which looks identical to a malicious stop at the command-line level and is distinguished only by the account and the absence of a matching service start shortly after.

Noise check0 of 30 fired

Fires on none of the 30 ordinary behaviours the baseline holds for this log type. That is not a precision guarantee: it means only not caught by these 30 behaviours, and the next ordinary behaviour nobody wrote down may still match.

Run live against 65 hand-written events of ordinary corporate activity — backup agents, software distribution, patching, helpdesk scripts, EDR. It says nothing about how often the rule would fire in production, which is the number that actually exhausts an analyst.

Verification1 run

Not verified

Siemphony benign baseline
completed
Siemphony IR · 3 Sept 2026
No events matched, so this run proves nothing either way.

Test it yourselfin your browser

Runs here in your browser against public attack recordings. A preview — not the verification badge.

Recordings of T1489, evaluated against their process_creation events.

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Stop or disable command targeting a data-store service

The detection

detection.yml

Sentinel · KQL

Splunk · SPL

Elastic · ES|QL

Wazuh · XML rule

Community

Verdicts from engineers who deployed it