Malicious Microsoft Defender Disabled via Registry DisableAntiSpyware (via process_creation)

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 reg.exe setting the Windows Defender DisableAntiSpyware policy value to one, the defense-evasion action performed by a helper tool in the ELPACO-team Confluence intrusion to turn off protection before ransomware staging. Adversaries disable Defender through this policy key to blind endpoint protection ahead of encryption, so a write enabling DisableAntiSpyware is a strong pre-impact evasion indicator.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Microsoft Defender Disabled via Registry DisableAntiSpyware (via process_creation)

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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