Malicious Microsoft Defender Tamper via Registry Modification

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1112Modify Registry
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1112Modify Registry
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects registry modifications that disable Microsoft Defender protections under the Windows Defender policy keys. Attackers set DisableAntiSpyware or DisableRealtimeMonitoring to switch off protection persistently, a registry-based evasion technique covered in Sekoia detection engineering.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Windows Defender Exclusion Added via PowerShell via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Malicious TCC AppleEvents Reset via Tccutil

Suspicious ESXi Management Agent Stop via vpxa init Script (via process_creation)

Malicious ESXi Firewall Disable via esxcli (via process_creation)

Malicious Microsoft Defender Tamper via Registry Modification

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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