Malicious Disabling of Microsoft Defender Real-Time Protection via SystemSettingsAdminFlows by DeadLock Ransomware

ATT&CK techniques

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects use of SystemSettingsAdminFlows to toggle Microsoft Defender real-time protection. The DeadLock ransomware loader invokes this living-off-the-land binary to disable endpoint protection before deploying its payload. Turning off real-time protection blinds the defender to subsequent malicious activity.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Microsoft Defender Real-Time Monitoring Disabled via Set-MpPreference (via process_creation)

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Malicious Disabling of Microsoft Defender Real-Time Protection via SystemSettingsAdminFlows by DeadLock Ransomware

Pivot detection · T1685 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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