Malicious ELAM Driver Disable via Bcdedit

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1547Boot or Logon Autostart Execution
Priv Esc
- T1547Boot or Logon Autostart Execution
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects bcdedit disabling Early Launch Anti-Malware drivers which prevents boot-time protection from loading and allows unsigned or malicious drivers to initialize. This tampering appears in ransomware playbooks that clear the way for kernel-level evasion. Disabling ELAM undermines the boot integrity chain that would otherwise block untrusted drivers.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Windows Defender Exclusion Added via PowerShell Add-MpPreference

Suspicious Security Product Process Termination via Named Utility

Suspicious Windows Defender Disabling via SystemSettingsAdminFlows

Windows Defender Exclusion Path Added via Add-MpPreference

Suspicious Hosts File Modification to Block Security Vendors via file_event

Malicious Windows Defender Real-Time Protection Disabled via Registry

Malicious Vulnerable Driver Load via TfSysMon.sys BYOVD (via driver_load)

Suspicious Defendnot Antivirus Disabling Component Dropped in ProgramData (via file_event)

Malicious Removal of Defender Safe Mode Service Registration via Process Creation

Malicious ELAM Driver Disable via Bcdedit

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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