Home/ATT&CK Technique/Network Share Connection Removal
ATT&CK Technique

Network Share Connection Removal

T1070.005 · stealth

Adversaries may remove share connections that are no longer useful in order to clean up traces of their operation. Windows shared drive and SMB/Windows Admin Shares connections can be removed when no longer needed. Net is an example utility that can be used to remove network share connections with the net use \\system\share /delete command.

Windows
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Actors Using This

1
chinaSalt Typhoon
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Atomic Tests

5
Executable Atomic Red Team test cases for exercising this technique in a lab. Copy a command, run it on the listed platform, confirm your detections fire.
command_promptwindowsAdd Network Share
Add a Network Share utilizing the command_prompt 
net use c: #{share_name}
net share test=#{share_name} /REMARK:"test share" /CACHE:No
command_promptwindowsRemove Network Share
Removes a Network Share utilizing the command_prompt 
net share #{share_name} /delete
powershellwindowsRemove Network Share PowerShell
Removes a Network Share utilizing PowerShell 
Remove-SmbShare -Name #{share_name}
Remove-FileShare -Name #{share_name}
command_promptelevatedwindowsDisable Administrative Share Creation at Startup
Administrative shares are hidden network shares created by Microsoft’s Windows NT operating systems that grant system administrators remote access to every disk volume on a network-connected system. These shares are automatically created at started unless they have been purposefully disabled as is done in this Atomic test. As Microsoft puts it, "Missing administrative shares typically indicate that the computer in question has been compromised by malicious software." https://threatpost.com/conti-ransomware-gang-has-full-log4shell-attack-chain/177173/ 
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters" /v AutoShareServer /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters" /v AutoShareWks /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
command_promptelevatedwindowsRemove Administrative Shares
Administrative shares are hidden network shares created by Microsoft’s Windows NT operating systems that grant system administrators remote access to every disk volume on a network-connected system. As Microsoft puts it, “Missing administrative shares typically indicate that the computer in question has been compromised by malicious software. https://threatpost.com/conti-ransomware-gang-has-full-log4shell-attack-chain/177173/ 
for %i in (C$ IPC$ ADMIN$) do net share %i /delete
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Detection Coverage

2/6 layers
Coverage across standard detection surfaces. Rows marked none have no rule of that type mapped. Some are real blind spots worth closing; others are simply not applicable to this technique (e.g. YARA matches malware files, not network behaviour).
Behavioral / log (Sigma) 4
Analytics (MITRE CAR) 1
Runtime / container (Falco) none
File / malware (YARA) none
Network (Suricata/Snort) none
Vuln scan (Nuclei) none
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CAR Analytics

1
MITRE Cyber Analytics Repository - field-tested detection logic for this technique, written as pseudocode/queries you adapt to your own SIEM (Splunk, Sentinel, EQL). Each is a ready starting point for a detection rule, not just a description.
CAR-2020-11-007High coverageNetwork Share Connection Removal

Adversaries may use network shares to exfliltrate date.

they will then remove the shares to cover their tracks. This analytic looks for the removal of network shares via commandline, which is otherwise a rare event.

Pseudocode - Pseudocode - network shares being removed via the command line
processes = search Process:Create
target_processes = filter processes where (
  (exe="C:\\Windows\\System32\\net.exe" AND command_line="*delete*") OR
  command_line="*Remove-SmbShare*" OR
  comman_line="*Remove-FileShare*" )
output target_processes
Splunk - Splunk Search - delete network shares
(index=__your_sysmon_index__ EventCode=1) ((Image="C:\\Windows\\System32\\net.exe" AND CommandLine="*delete*") OR CommandLine="*Remove-SmbShare*" OR CommandLine="*Remove-FileShare*")
LogPoint - LogPoint Search - delete network shares
norm_id=WindowsSysmon event_id=1 ((image="C:\Windows\System32\net.exe" command="*delete*") OR command="*Remove-SmbShare*" OR command="*Remove-FileShare*")
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