T1562.003: Impair Command History Logging
| View on MITRE ATT&CK | T1562.003 |
|---|---|
| Tactic(s) | Defense Evasion |
| Associated CAPEC Patterns | Subverting Environment Variable Values (CAPEC-13) , Audit Log Manipulation (CAPEC-268) |
Data from MITRE ATT&CK®:
Adversaries may impair command history logging to hide commands they run on a compromised system. Various command interpreters keep track of the commands users type in their terminal so that users can retrace what they've done.
On Linux and macOS, command history is tracked in a file pointed to by the environment variable HISTFILE. When a user logs off a system, this information is flushed to a file in the user's home directory called ~/.bash_history. The HISTCONTROL environment variable keeps track of what should be saved by the history command and eventually into the ~/.bash_history file when a user logs out. HISTCONTROL does not exist by default on macOS, but can be set by the user and will be respected.
Adversaries may clear the history environment variable (unset HISTFILE) or set the command history size to zero (export HISTFILESIZE=0) to prevent logging of commands. Additionally, HISTCONTROL can be configured to ignore commands that start with a space by simply setting it to "ignorespace". HISTCONTROL can also be set to ignore duplicate commands by setting it to "ignoredups". In some Linux systems, this is set by default to "ignoreboth" which covers both of the previous examples. This means that “ ls” will not be saved, but “ls” would be saved by history. Adversaries can abuse this to operate without leaving traces by simply prepending a space to all of their terminal commands.
On Windows systems, the PSReadLine module tracks commands used in all PowerShell sessions and writes them to a file ($env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\PSReadLine\ConsoleHost_history.txt by default). Adversaries may change where these logs are saved using Set-PSReadLineOption -HistorySavePath {File Path}. This will cause ConsoleHost_history.txt to stop receiving logs. Additionally, it is possible to turn off logging to this file using the PowerShell command Set-PSReadlineOption -HistorySaveStyle SaveNothing.(Citation: Microsoft PowerShell Command History)(Citation: Sophos PowerShell command audit)(Citation: Sophos PowerShell Command History Forensics)
Adversaries may also leverage a Network Device CLI on network devices to disable historical command logging (e.g. no logging).
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Reporting on this Technique
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Mitigations for this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Mitigations
How to detect this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Data Components
Host Status (Sensor Health)
Logging, messaging, and other artifacts highlighting the health of host sensors (ex: metrics, errors, and/or exceptions from logging applications)Command Execution (Command)
The execution of a line of text, potentially with arguments, created from program code (e.g. a cmdlet executed via powershell.exe, interactive commands like >dir, shell executions, etc. )Control Validation Tests for this Technique
Use Atomic Red Team tests to test your defenses against this technique.
Clear bash history
Mac HISTCONTROL
Disable Windows Command Line Auditing using reg.exe
Setting the HISTCONTROL environment variable
Disable history collection (freebsd)
Disable Windows Command Line Auditing using Powershell Cmdlet
Setting the HISTFILE environment variable
Setting the HISTSIZE environment variable
Setting the HISTIGNORE environment variable
Setting the HISTFILESIZE environment variable
Disable history collection
Setting the HISTFILE environment variable (freebsd)
Sigma Detections for this Technique
SP800-53 Controls
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