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Detections · Rule
← Cortex XDR detectionsCortex XDR · Behaviour (ATT&CK technique)

Shadow copy or backup catalog deletion (T1490)

XQLhighconfidence 85/100generated 2026-10-18

Deletion of Volume Shadow Copies or the Windows backup catalog, or disabling boot recovery — a step ransomware operators take right before encryption. Observed for: blackbyte, Medusa Group, Sandworm, Scattered Spider, Storm-0501, Void Manticore and 1 more.

ATT&CK
T1490 mitre ↗
Correlation
set the rule's MITRE tactic to TA0040 and technique to T1490
Linked actors
blackbyte · Medusa Group · Sandworm · Scattered Spider · Storm-0501 · Void Manticore · WIZARD SPIDER
False positives
Each branch needs both the binary and the destructive verb (delete shadows / shadowcopy delete / recoveryenabled no / delete catalog); listing or creating shadow copies does not match.

XQL query

skopnix-cortex-ttp-t1490-5e86dc95.xqldownload .xql ↓
dataset = xdr_data
| filter event_type = ENUM.PROCESS and event_sub_type = ENUM.PROCESS_START
| filter (lowercase(action_process_image_name) = "vssadmin.exe" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "delete" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "shadows") or (lowercase(action_process_image_name) = "wmic.exe" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "shadowcopy" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "delete") or (lowercase(action_process_image_name) = "bcdedit.exe" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "recoveryenabled" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "no") or (lowercase(action_process_image_name) = "wbadmin.exe" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "delete" and lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains "catalog")
| fields _time, agent_hostname, actor_effective_username, action_process_image_name, action_process_image_command_line, actor_process_image_name, causality_actor_process_image_name
| sort desc _time

How to deploy on Cortex XDR

  1. 1.Paste the XQL into Incident Response > Investigation > Query Builder > XQL Search.
  2. 2.To alert, save it as a Correlation Rule and set the MITRE tactic and technique printed with the rule.
  3. 3.Schedule it on the interval you hunt at; keep the fields stage for the alert's columns.

Check · CVE rules read PAN-OS URL logs (panw_ngfw_url_raw), which need the NGFW integration and, for HTTPS, decryption.

References