Sigma rule: Failed Event Log Clear Via WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog

Rule

Title

Failed Event Log Clear Via WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Date

2026-07-01

File

rules/windows/builtin/wmi/win_wmi_activity_nteventlogfile_cleareventlog.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects failed attempts to clear Windows event logs via the WMI NTEventLogFile ClearEventLog method.
Event 5858 in the WMI-Activity operational log is an error event, meaning it is only generated
when the WMI operation encounters an error (e.g. access denied, provider failure).
It could be an indication of an attacker attempting to clear event logs via WMI, but failing due to insufficient privileges or other issues.
Successful clearing operations will NOT produce this event; for those, correlate with
Security event 1102 or System event 104.

Log source

product

windows

service

wmi

Detection

selection:
    EventID: 5858
    Operation|contains|all:
        - 'Win32_NTEventlogFile'
        - 'cleareventlog'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1685.005

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1685.005

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/cimwin32prov/cleareventlog-method-in-class-win32-nteventlogfile

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/builtin/wmi/win_wmi_activity_nteventlogfile_cleareventlog.yml