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

Windows event log cleared with wevtutil (T1685.005)

XQLhighconfidence 80/100generated 2026-10-18

wevtutil.exe clearing an event log (cl / clear-log) — removing the evidence trail after intrusion activity. Observed for: APT28, APT32, Chimera, ENERGETIC BEAR, FIN5, FIN8 and 5 more.

ATT&CK
T1685.005 mitre ↗
Correlation
set the rule's MITRE tactic to TA0112 and technique to T1685.005
Linked actors
APT28 · APT32 · Chimera · ENERGETIC BEAR · FIN5 · FIN8 · HAFNIUM · INDRIK SPIDER · MirrorFace · play · Volt Typhoon
False positives
Only the clear verbs match; wevtutil queries, exports and log configuration do not.

XQL query

skopnix-cortex-ttp-t1685-005-2db8e8f7.xqldownload .xql ↓
dataset = xdr_data
| filter event_type = ENUM.PROCESS and event_sub_type = ENUM.PROCESS_START
| filter lowercase(action_process_image_name) = "wevtutil.exe" and (lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains " cl " or lowercase(action_process_image_command_line) contains " clear-log ")
| 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