H3XAOperational intelligence
Live analytical pictureEvidence before assessment
TypeTechnique
External ID—
First seen2026-08-14
Last seen2026-08-14

Confidence

—

Adversaries may corrupt or wipe the disk data structures on a hard drive necessary to boot a system; targeting specific critical systems or in large numbers in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources. Adversaries may attempt to render the system unable to boot by overwriting critical data located in structures such as the master boot record (MBR) or partition table.(Citation: Symantec Shamoon 2012)(Citation: FireEye Shamoon Nov 2016)(Citation: Palo Alto Shamoon Nov 2016)(Citation: Kaspersky StoneDrill 2017)(Citation: Unit 42 Shamoon3 2018) The data contained in disk structures may include the initial executable code for loading an operating system or the location of the file system partitions on disk. If this information is not present, the computer will not be able to load an operating system during the boot process, leaving the computer unavailable. [Disk Structure Wipe](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1561/002) may be performed in isolation, or along with [Disk Content Wipe](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1561/001) if all sectors of a disk are wiped. On a network devices, adversaries may reformat the file system using [Network Device CLI](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/008) commands such as `format`.(Citation: format_cmd_cisco) To maximize impact on the target organization, malware designed for destroying disk structures may have worm-like features to propagate across a network by leveraging other techniques like [Valid Accounts](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078), [OS Credential Dumping](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003), and [SMB/Windows Admin Shares](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/002).(Citation: Symantec Shamoon 2012)(Citation: FireEye Shamoon Nov 2016)(Citation: Palo Alto Shamoon Nov 2016)(Citation: Kaspersky StoneDrill 2017)

23 recorded

Relationships

mitigatesMitigation
revoked-byTechnique
subtechnique-ofTechnique
uses
from APT37
Group
uses
from APT38
Group
usesMalware
usesMalware
usesMalware
usesTool
usesGroup
usesMalware
usesCampaign
usesMalware
usesGroup
usesMalware
uses
from RawDisk
Tool
usesGroup
uses
from Shamoon
Malware
usesMalware
usesMalware
usesGroup
usesMalware
usesMalware
8 external

References

mitre-attack
T1561.002
open
format_cmd_cisco
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/fundamentals/command/cf_command_ref/F_through_K.html#wp2829794668
open
Unit 42 Shamoon3 2018
https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/shamoon-3-targets-oil-gas-organization/
open
Palo Alto Shamoon Nov 2016
http://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2016/11/unit42-shamoon-2-return-disttrack-wiper/
open
FireEye Shamoon Nov 2016
https://web.archive.org/web/20210126065851/https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2016/11/fireeye_respondsto.html
open
Kaspersky StoneDrill 2017
https://media.kasperskycontenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2018/03/07180722/Report_Shamoon_StoneDrill_final.pdf
open
Microsoft Sysmon v6 May 2017
https://docs.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/sysmon
open
Symantec Shamoon 2012
https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/shamoon-attacks
open