Detection rules › Splunk
Windows Raw Access To Disk Volume Partition
The following analytic detects suspicious raw access reads to the device disk partition of a host machine. It leverages Sysmon EventCode 9 logs to identify processes attempting to read or write to the boot sector, excluding legitimate system processes. This activity is significant as it is commonly associated with destructive actions by adversaries, such as wiping, encrypting, or overwriting the boot sector, as seen in attacks involving malware like HermeticWiper. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could lead to severe impacts, including system inoperability, data loss, or compromised boot integrity.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Impact | T1561.002 Disk Wipe: Disk Structure Wipe |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | 9 | RawAccessRead |
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
search NOT Image IN ("*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\*") Device="\\\\Device\\\\HarddiskVolume*" EventCode=9
Stage 2: stats
stats BY dest, dvc, process_exec, process_guid, process_id, process_name, process_path, signature, signature_id, user_id, vendor_product, Device, Image
Stage 3: search
search
Stage 4: search
search
Stage 5: search
search `macro`
Exclusions
Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts — predicates this rule actively suppresses.
| Stage | Field | Kind | Excluded values |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Image | in | "*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\*" |
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
Device | eq |
|
EventCode | eq |
|