MITRE ATT&CKtechnique

T1561 Disk Wipe

Published 2020-02-20 Modified 2025-10-24 Official page ↗
Domain
enterprise
Tactics
Impact
Platforms
Linux, macOS, Windows, Network Devices
Version
1.2
Created
2020-02-20

Description

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

Related

Tactic · MITRE ATT&CK (1)

Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · mitigates (1)

  • M1053 Data Backup mitigation

Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · subtechnique of (2)

Referenced by Compliance · mitigates (14)

  • CIS-11.2 Perform Automated Backups CIS Safeguard v8.1
  • CIS-11.3 Protect Recovery Data CIS Safeguard v8.1
  • CIS-11.4 Establish and Maintain an Isolated Instance of Recovery Data CIS Safeguard v8.1
  • CIS-3.5 Securely Dispose of Data CIS Safeguard v8.1
  • NIST-AC-3 Access Enforcement NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-AC-6 Least Privilege NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-CM-2 Baseline Configuration NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-CP-10 System Recovery and Reconstitution NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-CP-2 Contingency Plan NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-CP-7 Alternate Processing Site NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-CP-9 System Backup NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-3 Malicious Code Protection NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-4 System Monitoring NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-7 Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity NIST 800-53 control

References