Adversaries may delete files left behind by the actions of their intrusion activity. Malware, tools, or other non-native files dropped or created on a system by an adversary (ex: [Ingress Tool Transfer](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1105)) may leave traces to indicate to what was done within a network and how. Removal of these files can occur during an intrusion, or as part of a post-intrusion process to minimize the adversary's footprint.

There are tools available from the host operating system to perform cleanup, but adversaries may use other tools as well.(Citation: Microsoft SDelete July 2016) Examples of built-in [Command and Scripting Interpreter](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059) functions include <code>del</code> on Windows and <code>rm</code> or <code>unlink</code> on Linux and macOS.
File Deletion
source_name: mitre-attack  url: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1070/004  external_id: T1070.004     source_name: Microsoft SDelete July 2016  description: Russinovich, M. (2016, July 4). SDelete v2.0. Retrieved February 8, 2018.  url: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sdelete     